Kung Fu Panda: Thievery of Chi
by Azkeada
Summary: Someone has been stealing valuable scrolls from temples all across China, but they are only scrolls telling of chronicled battle from history, what could this thief want with them, and is it who Po, the five, and thier new friend really think it is?
1. Morning visit

Po awoke in his room set at the end of the hall across from Tigress', he yawned loudly as he got up, and walked over to his sliding paper door to open it, as he did so, he noticed it was still a bit dark, tha hall tinted a dark blue from the light shining off of the moon outside. Po quirked his brow, and held a large claw to his chin in thought, he smiled in a bit off excitement, and began to sneak passed the rooms of the Furious Five, tiptoeing his way passed, making sure not to make too much noise, the floorboards squeeking every few steps from his weight. He finally reached the end of the hall, and looked back to see if he had woke any of the others up, no sign of movement, nor any sounds of feet, claws, or scales scraping across the floor, all to be heard was the occasional light snor emiting from Mantis' room, "Phew." Po said lightly in reliefe, as he began to walk out of the dorm hall, and into the open air of the courtyard.

As Po reached the other side of the palace gate, and closed it quuietly, he turned to look down at the Valley of Peace, until his eyes caught site of the stairs leading up to where he was, "Glad I'm going down." he said to himself as he set his foot on the first step to descend. He continued walking down for a good five mitutes before he stopped to take a quik break, he looked up at the sky as he rested, small clouds were strung across the sky, painted a bright pink and orange mix from the rising sun until what part of the overview right above him turned to a dark blue shade from the passing night, Po couldn't help but smile at the sight, ready for the new day, filled with training with his best friends, and then a nice hot meal afterwords, but before any of that, he had another plan for the day. He looked down at the town nesteled inin the middle of the valley, staring straight at his adopted fathers house, and resturant, he began walking again down the steps until he lost his footing on the steap path, and began to fall the rest of the way down, letting out loud yelps of slight pain from each bouncing land on the steps.

Finally landing at the bottom of the steps, Po pulled himself up, and stretched a bit, putting his large black paws on his lower back and pushing forward on it while leaning back until a loud pop sounded from the preassure being put on his spine, he looked around at the town which had a few of its inhabitants walking about now in the morning light, each being waving and greeting him as he began to walk by them smiling in joyfrom the respect they paid him ever since he had beaten Tai Lung a few years ago. He had reached his fathers house as the townsfolk had all began to wake, he looked aroung the arch like entrance to the house to see if his father was awake, like always, he was working in the kitchen already making a large helping of his famous secret ingrediant soup. Po walked up to the counter top that served as an order and pick up location in the resturant, his father, Mr. Ping not looking away from the work in front of him, "Yes, what can I get you?" he said as he noticed a shadow forming on the back wall he was facing as the sun beat down on Po, he couldn't help but smile and laugh a bit at the fact his father didn't realize his own son was the one at the bar, "How about a hug from my dad?" Po replied to the question, his fathers head shot up in suprize, he turned around with a wide smile on his face, "Po!" he yelled out with glee as he ran up to his son, arms apart for a hug, Po accepted the hug as he wrapped one arm around his dad as he bent over the counter top, "What are you doing here, shouldn't you be at the palace gettign ready for training?" Mr. Ping had asked his son, letting go of him still smiling, "I thought I'd come visit you." he replied as he went to the door leading to the kitchen, "But Po, you visit me every day after training, why so early?" his father questioned a bit confused about the morning visitation, "Don't know, I just felt... compelled, that and some morning soup wouldn't hurt either." he said laughing, his father joining in with a chuckle, as he dipped the ladle into the pot of soup, before pouring it into a bowl, "Well, you always did love my secret ingrediant soup." Mr. Ping said as he handed the bowl to his son.

Po had just lifted the bowl to his lips to beging slupring up the noodle filled soup when someone had come running into the dining room of the small resturant in a panic, "Dragon warrior!" the man screamed as he cought sight of the panda, Po lowered the bowl as he heard his title called out by a male pig running an out of breath, "Dragon warrior, a band of thieves are attacking a couple near the bridge!" Po handed the bowl back to his father and took off in a sprint, "I'll see you later dad!" he called out as he rounded the entrance to the hounse, "Be carefull son!" Mr. Ping called out to him hoping he had heard before he heard the sound of wood crashing nearby, "Ow, where'd that come from!" Po yelled out from around the corner of the building.

Upon reacheing the bridge, Po notice a strange group of armed thugs running away, each of them had brown and black fur, all had similar looking weapons except one who was carrying a spear like one which had a second curved blade protruding from the side, close to the spear head, tide onto the pole tightly with rope, but what cought his full attention was one of the men carrying a female tiger slung over his shoulder, though unlike Tigress, her fur was grey with black stripes, Po's face went from action seeking optimism to shock at the sight, "Put me down!" the girl screamed as she bounced on the thiefs shoulder, bound with rope, and iron cuffs on her wrists. Po ran towards the group ready to fight as they began to cross the bridge, "Light it!" one of them called out to another who was standing next to a long fuse leading to the middle of the crossing, before it entered into a barrel of powder used for fireworks which was surounded by ten others similar to itself each with another fuse being fed to them by the first barrel, the thief lit it, and bolted joining his brothers in crime, the fuse winding up the arch of the bridge before entering the barrel and blowing up the first powder keg, then leading to all the rest, leaving the wooden crossing to be completely destroyed blocking Po from giving chase, "No!" he screamed as he watched the group get away on the other side of the strong river, "Maybe I could jump... no, to far." he said to himself as he looked at the burning gap in the bridge, a good thirty feet of it missing and blazing with flames from the explosions.

Po couldn't believe they were going to get away with the girl, but more he couldn't believe that there was nothing he could do at the moment to begin giving chase, the poor girl was all he could think about at the moment, the angry yet scared look in her eyes, Po tried to work out some way to go after them, but could think of nothing short of going back to the palace, and getting the five to help, but if he were to do that, the thieves would be long gone by the time they returned. "Agh, I don't believe this!" he yelled out as he flopped down hating himself for his failure, he inhailed through his nose, getting ready to exhail through his mouth until a scent cought his attention, a sweet smell, like a sugary treat of some sort, he continued to smell it until he follwed it to a smashed cart, he looked closely, and noticed a black furry tail coming from beneeth the broken boards of the cart, he ghasped in shock as he ran over and lifted up some of the splintered wooden planks covering the hopefully only injured being. Po lifted the final board covering the creature, to reviel a completely black furred male being, what the man was he couldn't guess, he had never seen such a creature before, all black, save for the fur on the back of his neck which was a dark brown, and his face which was a mix of black, and dark grey, curved black ears pointing downward, and long claws coming from his paws, the man was dressed in a green vest, with white trimming, and clasps curving to the right of the mans chest, with loose pants matching the color of the clasps on his shirt. Po stood with a mixture of awe, and confusion to the mans apearance, until he finally was able to snap himself out of the trance to check for signs of life, "Oh God, are you alright?" he asked as lowered his head to listen for a heartbeat, the man began to cough uncontrollably before faintly whispering something, as his eyes stayed closed, "Fei... Yen..." he said as his head fell down from exhaustion, "Hang on, I'm gonna help you!" Po said as he lifted the man into his arms before running in the direction of the palace, seeing the aid of this man the best possible thing to do as he could not chase the group of bandits.


	2. Unexpected guest

Master Shifu stood in the hall the five, and the Dragon Warrior slept in, the paper doors all closed as they slept, a bit of sunlight peering through the windows, and the paper on the side which masters Tigress, Viper, and Mantis occupied. Shifu waited, ready to greet them all for the new day, the gong went off, and the five instantly emerged from thier seperate rooms, closing the doors behind them, "Good morning master!" they all said in unisen, as they awaited for instructions, Shifu's ears went down in a bit of anger, "Panda!" he yelled trying to get the large warriors attention, he began walking towards the panda's room situated across from Tigress' at the end of the hall, "Panda!" he yelled again louder this time, but still there was no answer.

Shifu slung the door to Po's room open, "Panda, you-!" he began to yell again, only to find the room was empty, save for the posessions the panda kept there, Tigress' eyes went a little wide with suprize, as Shifu turned around to look at them all, thier heads pointing out to try and see, and retracting back to thier previous stances as thier master looked at them, trying to avoid a lecture about being too curious. "Where is he?" Shifu said sharply at the five, Tigress was the first to answer him with nothing more than a raised eyebrow, an agaped mouth, and a slowly shaking head signifying she had no idea, Shifu looked at the others who gave little more than a shrug at the question, he sighed and turned his head trying to think of where Po might be, "Dismissed." he said without looking at them, they bowed and proceeded to walk out of the hall, and into the courtyard of the palace.

The furious five stood in the courtyard conversing about thier comrade, confused as to where he might be, "Maybe he's in the training hall?" Viper said trying to be helpfull, Tigress shook her head, "No, I don't hear any exhailed yells of combat." she answered lightly, "Maybe he's making us breakfast?" Crane questioned pointing a wing at the kitchen, as Mantis jumped up into the tip of the birds straw hat, "Well if that's the case, we might wanna get there before he decides to eat it for us as well." He laughed the words out, slowly stopping his chuckling as he noticed the others giving him a hard stare.

"Guys!" they all heard a voice coming from the stairs leading up to the palace, they turned around to see Po running up to them panting heavily holding his chest trying to catch his breath, "Po, where have you been?" Monkey asked as the panda reached them nearly falling over from exhaustion, "S-Stairs!...Ugh!" he let out as he fell over in front of them, Crane and Tigress saw something laying at the top of the stairs as Po fell, a black mass with a long tail to match the color, "Po?... What is that?" Tigress asked him as he still lay on his stomache, begging for air, "I Found him... after a... gang beat him up!" He answered inhailing deeply every few words, Tigress reacted instantly, "Viper, go get master Shifu, Crane, Monkey, go check on him." she ordered as she pointed to each indevidual before ending her commands by pointing at the creature near the steps, "Right!" they all called out as they ran off to fufill the orders. Po finally caught his breath, and stood up again, "I-I tried to stop the guys that did it, but they ran off, and I couldn't just leave him there unconcious!" he tried to reason as Tigress gave him a serious look, she gave a slight smile before putting a paw on his shoulder, "You did what was best." she said as she began to walk towards the steps, Mantis jumped up on Po's shoulder as he stood in the middle of the courtyard still breathing a little heavily, "Po, what exactly IS he?" the insect asked as he pointed over in the other's direction, Po gave him a confused look "I have no idea." he answered shaking his head quikly before Shifu came out following Viper to see thier unexpected guest.

As they reached him he began to regain his consiousness, bringing a giant paw up to his head grunting in pain, "Ugh, w-where am I?" he asked opening his light brown eyes which looked almost a dull diluded orange in the morning sunlight, "The Jade Palace, are you alright?" Tigress answered, then questioned him, his eyes widened at the sight of Tigress, "You- no, your fur's orange." he said trying to raise his head to look around, they all looked at the man with confused expressions, "My fur?" she asked him, not understanding what he ment. The man lifted himself up, his thick black fur swaying as he did so, "I thought you were-" he stopped himself and looked around in a panic, "Oh no, where is she?" he yelled out as he franticly looked around for whomever it was he was seeking before falling over from dizziness, the bump on his head still affecting him, Crane and Monkey went over to help him up, "Where is who?" Crane asked as Monky help the man to his feet, holding him up by the fore arm, his long black claws protruding from his massive paws hanging down the length of Monkey's chest, "Fei yen..." the man said as Monkey helped him back over the the others, "She's... a friend I was with, those thieves must have taken her when they attacked me." he answered them as he put his free paw against his head trying to ease the pain, Tigress was growing suspicious, "But why did you mistake me for her?" she asked in a serious tone, her eyes glaring at him, as he breathed deeply, "She's a tiger, but her fur is grey with black stripes." he complied with yet another question, "all I saw when I looked at you were the stripes, forgive me, my eyes were blurred from dizziness." he said ashamed of his continuing moment of weakness, Shifu began giving orders to everyone as Po and Mantis decided to join the group, "Tigress, take him to the main hall so we may tend to his wounds, he has my permission to enter." he said as Monkey handed him over to Tigress who would have an easier time carrying him due to her size, "Yes master." she said as she began to walk the man towards the hall entrance with Monkey and Viper behind in tow, "Po, I want to know everything that happened." he said to the panda who was still in a bit of shock over the entire thing, "Oh, yes master!" he answered abruptly realizing he was being spoken to.

As Tigress lead him to the hall, he began to regain his focus and soon was able to stand up almost straight, "Again, I appologize for the mistaken identity miss." he said as he began walking with little help, he never lifted his head though out of shame, "It's alright, you said you couldn't see straight." she replied back with a slight smile, as she continued to try and help him walk, "But, would you mind telling me what you are exactly?" she asked him her eyes trying to see his, only to see the side of his face, still looking away, she grunted a bit out of agrivation of him trying to be as enigmatic as he could, she along with all the others were curious as to what species he was, having never seen anything like him before, "I'm a... a binturong." he answered back lightly trying not to speak too loudly, clearly still a little unsure about the people aiding him.


	3. Interigation

As Tigress helped the man down onto the floor of the main hall, on a bed roll Monkey had layed down for him, she continued with her interigation of their guest, "Mind me asking your name?" she said as he lay down on his back, still holding his head which was throbbing with every heartbeat, struggling to speak due to the pain coursing through his skull, "My... my name's Enlai." he finally answered as Monkey aproached them with a clay bottle, and cup, poaring hot tea into the cup. "Here, drink this." Monkey said lightly as he handed Enlai the steaming cup, he took it not wanting to seem disreaspectfull towrds those who were helping him in his time of need, "Thank you." he responded as he lifted his head to take a sip, nearly choking from how hot it was, until he spit it out coughing and sitting up right in panic, "My bag!" he yelled realizing he was without it, Tigress held a paw against his back to support him, as Monkey took th cup from him so he wouldn't spill it and end up burning himself, "My sword, my Ji!" he continued as he named off the things he had just noticed were gone, putting his face into his big black paw, "They even took my bow and quivel."

Shifu and Po were aproaching the group gathered around Enlai, "Young man." Shifu said as they both reached the binturong who was still sitting up right, he looked over at the small master with an expression mixed of pain and confusion. "Po tells me he saw a band of thieves running away with your gear, and your friend after they attacked you." he said in his deep graviley voice with a serious look on his face, Enlai began to nod slowly to confirm the tale that the panda had told to Shifu, "Raccoon dogs, they jumped me from behind." Shifu gave the binturong a small quirk of his brow showing he was a bit curious about something, "Your friend couldn't retaliate after she saw you being attacked?" he asked as he began to walk around the bed roll Enlai lay upon, the five and Po staying silent out of respect for their master, and courtasy of their guest, "My.. oh, she's not a fighter, she... wasn't trai-" Enlai stopped himself abruptly as he looked around at them nervously insinuating he didn't intentionally mean to say something, "...Trained?" Shifu finished for him in a question, "N-No! I wasn't either!" the binturong stuttered trying to reason with the master, Shifu was not swayed by the attempt, and gave him a hard stare as he began to rant, raising his voice gradually, "Really?... So you just happened to have a sword, spear, bow and quivel, along with a bag which held who knows what, with no idee how to use them, nor fight someone while carrying them all?" Shifu paused to regain his breath, Po and the five were giving looks of confusion, and sceptisism back and forth as Enlai lowered his ears in fear, "Not only that, but you don't dress like a commoner, and are polite to those you don''t even know, and also speak with an additude that says you've been beaten into submission by someone who believes in giving respect to anyone whom you may encounter even if you know nothing about them, now tell the truth!" Enlai's heart was nearly jumping out of his chest in fear, the red panda looked as though his face would have been a dark crimson with rage had it not been for the fur covering him, "... Fine..." he finally answered as he got up and gave the student to master bow.

"I am a student of master Fong Hei, teacher of the Changquan fighting style." Shifu's eyes grew a little wider at the mention of Enlai's master, "Fong Hei, I knew one of his students, he was a... binturong named Tao." Enlai's ears shot up, and his eyes began to water a bit, "Tao was my father, he... was murdered a few weeks ago..." Po's ears twitched a little at what he had heard, as Tigress put her serious face to rest with the others showing different reactions to it, Shifu however took the news the hardest, letting his mouth gape open and his ears lower, "He's... who is the one responsable for this? Tao was one of the greatest warriors I've ever seen." Enlai turned away from everyone hanging his head in shame, "I've already said too much, Master Fong Hei wanted to keep the mission as secretive as possible." Shifu nodded in agreement, "Yes, the master of the Changquan has always been one to keep secrets." he followed up as the five and dargon warrior watched the two converse about Fong Hei, a man they had only heard of from Shifu, who had told them about the pangolins great speed, and agility in combat.

Enlai began to walk towards the entrance of the hall with a bit of a limp, "I'm sorry to cut this short, but I must be on my way." he said raising even more questions for the people who had helped him, he turned around to face them, and bowed the respectfull kung fu bow again, "I appreciate the hospitality, but I have to get back my weapons, and scroll... No, ah!" Enlai tried to take back what he had said in another atempt to try and confuse them, but to no avail, he was obviously not the best liar, "What scroll?" Po asked before Shifu had the chance to, the binturong hung his head again in failure, the current hit to his skull from the attack taking its toll on his judgement, "Nothing, goodbye!" he yelled as he began to walk towards the door in a fast gait, "Tigress." Shifu called out as he snapped his fingers, she lowered her body to the floor, and pounced across the hall ontop of Enlai, he slung her off, and went into a fighting stance, as she landed gracefully on her feet only a few yards from him, "I don't like fighting women, but I will if I have to!" he yelled as she went into her own stance, "Carefull Tigress, the Changquan style is quik, and powerfull, but mainly focuses of fist tecniques!" Shifu informed her as they charged at each other, fists flying toward each other, each fighter blocking the others punches, until Tigress tried to kick the binturong who was reluctantly trying not to hurt her, but rather block and evade everything until she gave out. He lifted his leg to avoid the kick, but fell when he did, not realizing he was trying to stand on his wounded leg by itself, Tigress took advantage of the moment he had fallen and jumped on top of him, knee to his stomache, a paw to his throat, and the other ready to hit if he resisted any further.

Enlai struggled for a bit but eventually submited to defeat, "Tigress, I think he's done!" Viper called out to her as she kept her paw to his neck pressing down slightly to make him understand he had no chance of winning, "I submit!" he tried to scream from his throat which had a great force on it from Tigress' paw, "Tigress!" Shifu yelled at her to stop, she complied and got up off of the bitnurong, he started coughing from the release of pressure, finally able to inhail properly, "He's not much of a warrior, is he?" Mantis said in a joking manner to Monkey, but only to be ignored for Monkey was too busy being scepticle about the fight. Tigress helped Enlai to his feet, and bowed, before she began to walk back to the group, she stopped evenly between the others and Enlai, "Binturong..." she said as she turned her head, he looked at her still trying to catch his breath, "Next time, don't hold back." she finished as she began walking again, Enlai laughed a bit with a smirk, a bit unhappy he had been found not giving his all in a battle. "Now, what scroll did you speak of?" Shifu began questioning again, as the binturong went to join them so they would't have to yell back and forth, "It's nothing really, just a transcript from the chronicels Lei Huan wrote on his deathbed over two hundred years ago, but it was important to my master, he always kept it displayed in his library." he told the red panda seeing it was futile to try and escape from them again, Shifu quirked a brow at the information, "The battle against Zhi Sima, the leader of the thousand thieves of Zhou Feng?" Shifu asked to confirm with the binturong, Enlai nodded to assure him, "But, there's nothing valuable about them, why would someone steal them?" Crane asked knowing what the scrolls withheld in them, being the scholar of the group, Enlai shook his head, "I don't know why she did it." he said to them leaving them with yet another question, "She?" Monkey and Po asked together giving looks of confusion with a hint of intrigue, "She's not my friend... Fei Yen" he said as he began to try and walk toward the door again, looking back to make sure he wasn't going to be attacked again, "She's the one who stole it... and killed my father."


	4. Shifu's request

As Enlai made his way out of the main hall of the palace, he held a giant paw over his eyes to shield them from the bright sunlight, he crossed the courtyard limping along the way from his wounded leg, as he reached the very center of the yard he heard a voice call him, "Enlai, wait!" the voice yelled, he turned around to see Po chasing after him, Enlai sighed and began to walk again as Po caught up, "Look, I'm thankfull that you saved me, but I need to leave." the binturong complained in a calm yet annoyed voice, as he reached the doors to the palace. "You can't take on all those thugs by yourself, and master Shifu-" "Look!" Enlai interupted him causing the panda to jump at the sudden outburst, "I have a great respect for your master, but this is my mission and I am the one who was tasked with it, in order to get back the scroll, and avenge my fathers death by bringing that charlatan of a thief that killed him back for her sentencing." he told Po in a low and angry voice, gritting his teeth slightly and clenching his fists as he said it, "Char- how's Fei Yen a charlatan?" Po asked him a bit confused, Enlai sighed and put his large paw against the massive door, "I caught her, she was in my custody when I was attacked, therefore she's not that great of a thief if she can't even escape me, I honestly have no Idea how she killed my father or snuck into the temple for that matter." he pushed open the door to the palace only to reviel Shifu on the other side, clearly he had snuck by them with his stealth, or jumped over them to the other side without them knowing, Enlai looked back at the palace to see if Shifu were still up there to make sure his eyes werent playing tricks on him, he wasn't up there with the others, he looked at Po who had a smug expression stretched across his black and white face, "How... did?" "You'r not going anywhere yet." Shifu told him in little less than a small yell, Enlai rolled his eyes at the master and began to try and walk around him, "Watch me." he said in retaliation, Shifu grabbed the bitnurongs prehensile tail as it swayed by him, "Hey!" he yell as he wrapped his tail around Shifu's wrist and tried to sling him back, Shifu grabbed the very tip of his tail and swung from the hairs of it to fly through the air, letting his feet meet the back of Enlai's head before flipping over the binturong and landing in front of him again, "Okay!" Enlai yelled ready to comply with whatever Shifu had planned, "What do you want further of me?" he ask rubbing the back of his head in pain.

"Po's right, you cannot do this alone, especially now that you have none of your equipment." Shifu advised him as the five came from across the palace courtyard to join them, Enlai let out an annoyed sigh, "So, the five and the Dragon Warrior will accompany you in getting back your prisoner." he finished off as Tigress bowed in acceptance of the task, and Po got excited about going on a mission, the others were not so compliant on the subject, "But master, what if something happens in the vally and we're not here to tend to it." Crane asked him as he pointed his long white wing at the village bellow. Shifu raised his hand to stop anyone else from speaking, "I'll make sure nothing happens down there, Enlai, think of this a my way of paying your father my respect for his untimely demise." Shifu told them all as he walked over to Enlai, he nodded with tearfull eyes and bowed in acceptance, "But master, are you sure you want to send all of us?" Mantis was trying to add onto Crane's argument about it, only to recieve a glare from his master, "You would deny me may payment towards the life of one of the greatest warriors China has ever seen?" Mantis couldn't answer through the fear running throughout his small insect body from the dagger like stare, "That's what I thought, Now, The bandits who visit this place frequently like to hide out in the surrounding mountaines, you should start your search there." Shifu told the binturong as he began walking back towards the main hall doors across the courtyard, "Master, he said they were raccoon dogs, we've never had a group of bandits like that before." Tigress said unsure about whether the bandits knew the land well enough to know the location of the caves hidden in the mountaines, "True, but maybe you should try and be more observent, and look to the East." thier master called down to them as he reached the other side of the yard.

Po looked to the East and noticed the sky was begining to cloud with unpleasant looking black puffs of storming weather, a streak of lightning connecting the sky to the ground followed by a loud rumbling of thunder a few seconds after, the others looked out in disbelife that they had not noticed it, "Rain." Viper said stating the obvious to the others, Enlai began walking down the stairs, "In other words, the thieves will be heading to higher ground to prevent being caught in a flood." he stated as the others began to follow him, "Tigress!" they all heard Shifu call out from the doors of the main hall, "You're in charge!" he finished as he turned around opening the door entering the hall, "Alright, anyone oppose me leading?" she asked the group, knowing that Po and the others wouldn't care, they all shook their heads signifying they didn't mind, she looked at Enlai who was waiting for them to continue leading down the stairs, "Binturong?" she asked as he continued to look out towards the mountaines, "I'm no sexist." he said without averting his gaze from the peaks across the vally, Tigress' head shot back a bit from the seriousness in his voice, Viper's eyes widened a bit at the comment, "This guy seems to have a deep respect towards women." she whispered to Crane who then began nodding in agreement, "Yeah, he does." he replied before Mantis commented a bit louder than intended, "First he holds back against Tigress, now he doesn't mind her leading?" he said as Tigress began walking in the direction of the binturong still waiting on the steps, "It just shows he's more man than some are." Po began to giggle a bit at her reply towards Mantis, "What is THAT supposed to mean?" he asked as he jumped in her direction to try and catch up, the others in tow laughing at Mantis.

As they reached the bottom of the steps, with Tigress in lead, Po began to grimace while holding his stomache, Enlai took notice and began to stare at him with a quirked white brow above his eye, "Are... you... alright panda?" he asked as he continued to watch the ugly expressions dance across Po's face, "Guys, can we stop by my dad's for some food? I never got to eat this morning." he finally let out along with a loud rumble emiting from his large belly, Tigress shook her head unable to believe what she was hearing, "Po, we don't have time to-" she was stopped by the growling of her own stomache, grabbing it in suprize trying to add pressure to her insides to stop the noise, the others looked at her with faces stating that they too were hungry, "I guess a small meal couldn't hurt." she said smiling a bit embarressed for the betrayal made against her by her own body.

They made their way to Mr. Ping's resturant, and went through the archway to see the place half full of customers, each one greeting the masters as they entered before turning their attention to Enlai, having never seen a binturong bofore, mixed questions and comments were flying around the place from the patrons, asking one another about him, "What is he?" "Look at those claws." "Why such a long tail?" were some of the ones he had heard spoken, trying to ignore them, he just followed the others, "Po!" he heard someone call out from behind the counter, he looked over to see the panda hugging a male goose, "Hey dad, sorry about having to leave earlier." Po had said to his father, letting go of him to stand up, "Oh it's no problem, I suppose you're here to eat now though?" Mr. Ping asked the panda as he went to get some more bowls ready, "Yeah, we all need some, so that's seven noodle soups." Mr. Ping's head shot up at the number Po had said, as he looked at his son with hopefull eyes, "Seven? is Master Shifu with you today?" the proprieter goose had asked Po, only to recieve a shaking head signifying a 'No' answer, "It's for our friend, Enlai." he answered, Enlai's ears perked up a bit at the mention of his name, he ignored it and continued to look around, seeing the many faces of the customers still taking glances at him and whispering to each other, Enlai sat down at on of the tables and let out a sigh as he awaited the food Po was getting for him, the others joining him at their own seats to wait as well.


	5. Trek to the summit

After finishing their meals at Mr. Ping's resturant, Po and the five bid him farewell as Enlai leaned against the archway waiting for them to finish. They finally exited into the main street of the village and headed in the direction of the bridge, Enlai looked up at the sky as they began to walk, and noticed the storm growing, a bright flash dancing across the dark, grim looking cloud.

Enlai suddenly remembered something he had noticed at Mr. Ping's, and was trying to resist asking Po about it, but his curiosity had grown to powerfull for him to beat back the question any longer, "Um... Panda?" he said pausing in between words to think whether he wanted to continue to ask his question or not, Po turned a bit to look at him awaiting what he wanted to say, Enlai sighed unable to believe he was going to ask something that seemed obvious, "Your "Father" as you called him..." he said still unsure he wanted to proceed, Po smiled already aware of what he was going to ask, "Yeah, He found me as a cub and raised me as though I were his own... and the name's Po by the way." Po answered still smiling at the binturong who was following the group save for Monkey tagging along behind everyone, "We're here." Tigress called out stopping in front of the destroyed bridge, Everyone's eyes grew a little wider at the site of the explosion that had gone off earlier in the day, "Po, what did you do?" Monkey asked him causing him to give an unhappy gaze in his direction, "I didn't do this!" he replied pointing a large paw at the bridge, "It was those raccoon thingies!" he continued in retaliation to Monkey playfully blaming him for it.

"Let's get started." Tigress said backing away from the bridge, her leg muscles tensing up, ready to run, she took off on all fours and jumped up where the crossing had broken, flying through the air, flipping forward as she reached the other side and landed gracefully on he feet. Enlai starred at her with a serious yet unaverting face, most likely in aw at her grace, Monkey started running as well with Viper next to him, they both jumped simultaneously and landing the same. Mantis of course had to do little more than jump slightly to clear the bridge due to his light wieght, Po looked at Crane with a smug smirking face, leaving the poor winged warrior to sigh, knowing what had to be done, "Go." he said, Po didn't hesitate to take off, Crane lifted himself into the air, ready to aid the panda. Po jumped and barely even made it half way across before Crane had to grab onto the back of his pants to lift him up so he may land safely on the other side, leaving Enlai alone on the previous side they had been on, Po turned around after landing to check on the binturong, "Can you make it?" he called out, Enlai looked at the rushing river below and gulped in fear, he took a few steps back and started off, he ran as fast as he could until he reached the gap, he lifted himself up as high as he could flying through the air almost as high as Tigress, but fell short of his intended length of hang time, catching the very edge of the splintered wood of the crossing, hanging by one large paw, Viper slung her tail down and wrapped it around his other arm to pull him up. He climbed up with the snakes help and lay down for a bit thinking about how he almost was swept away by the raging water, "That's two I owe you guys now." he stated panting with a paw on his chest, and his eyes wide with fear.

After recovering from his slight brush with death, Enlai continued to follow the five and Po to the mountaines so they may try and find the thieves, Tigress stopped for a second and held out her paw, just as she did so, a drop of rain fell from the sky, and landed in the very center of the pads of her paw, "Not much time before it starts." she said as she began walking again heading onto a small trail leading up to one of the mountaines, Enlai looked to the right of the peak the trail lead up to see another mountaine with barely visible caves showing on the side facing the protrusion of earth they were heading to the top of, "We'll have a better vantage point from atop this mountaine." Tigress said as she pointed to it as well, motioning the others to follow the trail upwards.

Meanwhile, inside one of the caves atop the mountaines near the Valley of Peace, unbeknown to the five, the Dragon Warrior, and Enlai, the thives were speaking with a male Corsac Fox who wore an unamused stare, "The scroll?" he asked the leader of the raccoon dogs, the leader snaped his claws and was answered by one of his men bringing forward a cylinder designed with charicatures of black dragons stringing an immense battle across the circular container, "Excellent, master will be please." he replied to them as they handed over the item, he opened it, and read a small part of it to make sure they weren't trying anything, he closed it up, and put it back in it's case smiling, "And the girl?" "She's ready sir." the leader answered as the fox nodded at him while reaching into a bag he carried on his shoulder, he pulled out a large piece of cloth that was tied with a string around each end, something metalic rattling inside, "Your payment." the fox said as he threw it at the leader, who caught it and began inspecting the metal coins inside, "You're master is a man of his word Mr. Cheng." the raccoon dog replied tying the bag around his baldric, "You have no idea." the fox told him as he started to exit the cave.

Upon reaching an overlook of the surrounding mountaines, now all of them soaked with rain, Tigress held up a paw to signal the others to stop, "We have a great view of the caves from here!" she said looking out at the holes in the side of the mountaine next to the one they were on, orange lights flickering inside the black holes from campfires, "So cold." Monkey uttered holding himself shivering from the rain, "I don't know what's worse, the headache, or freezing my tail off in this monsoon!" Enlai screamed over the downpour so he was heard, Po tried to laugh, but didn't want to let out any of the warm air that was gathered in his lungs, "I-I'm f-freezing!" Viper said shaking her entire body from the cold water hitting her, the cold blood in her viens exacerbating the chill running through her, "Come on, we should get over to those caves and get back the prisoner!" Tigress commanded as she began to slide down a steep part of the mountaine to save time getting to their intended target, the others following her, still trying to cope with the ice like rain.


	6. Infeltration

Tigress lead the entire group up the side of the mountaine to the caves, as they reached the mouth of the first sheltered cavern they shook off the rain, and got ready for a fight, but there was no one to engage in combat to be seen. Po looked around confused, trying to figure out why the cave was not being occupied by anyone, even though there were campfires inside, "Be carefull, these caves are connected to a system of tunnels, they may be in another part of them." Tigress told them having explored them when she was younger, Monkey looked around and noticed two of their party members were missing, "Um... where's Viper and Enlai?" he asked the others who were still looking around the cavern for enemies, they turned around to realize they were no where to be seen. Po went to the mouth of the cave which dropped off into a steep and most likely fatal fall if not gone down with caution, as he reached the drop off, a large black paw came up and gripped the floor of the cave, pulling the rest of its body up, "Enlai!" Po yelled in suprize as the binturong pulled the upper half of his body into view of the others panting heavily. Tigress approached him with her ever serious stare, "Where's Viper?" she asked in a voice that could turn ones soul to stone from the tone of suspicion upon her words, "Right here." Viper's voice came out in a whisper as she slithered out of the back of Enlai's shirt, "Viper, why were you in-?" "She almost... froze to death... in that storm!" Enlai cut Crane off from asking the rest of his question still begging for air from the climb up. Tigress extended her arm to help the binturong to his feet, he accepted and got up with her aid, he took a few steps away from them to shake off the water that had fastened itself to his thick fur, and smoothed it back down together as it had frizzed out from the forcefull motion, "Hey Enlai." Viper called to him in a soft toned whisper to keep from blowing their cover, he turned around to face her awaiting for her to say something as he raised both brows on his face to let her know he was listening, "We're even." she said with a smile as she started to lead into a tunnel on the opposite side of the caves opening, he looked at her in confusion trying to deduce what she had ment, but realized in moments that she had been reffering to the incedent at the bridge.

Proceeding through the tunnel system, thay had passed a few holes in the walls to the left that showed through to another open part of the caves, they looked through them to see a couple of the thieves looking at some gear consisting of a sword, a spear, bow and quivel and a thick brown cloth bag, "My equipment." Enlai whispered as they looked on at the two raccoon dogs, "I've never seen this kind of weapon before." one of them said holding the spear which had a second blade tied to it with a thick tightened rope, not actually being a part of the original weapon, "Probably just something some craftsman came up with, you know how strange they can be." the other had told him as he himself slung the sword around, Po looked at Enlai who gave a face as though he were about to kill the two just by staring at them, "That Ji was forged by my father, and I WILL have it back." the binturong whispered rather loudly with a low growl in his voice that scared both Po and Crane with how much ire was filled into his words.

Tigress watched the thieves as they ravaged the bag she looked over at Enlai who's nose was wrinkled with rage, nearly snarling lightly at the sight of them disrespecting his items, "Binturong, don't do anything foolish." she whispered to him to try and keep him under controll, he relaxed a bit, the wrinkles around his muzzle dropping back down slowly, his eyes though never moved, nor blinked, they just stared ahead pointing like readied arrows at his targets. Tigress turned around to look at the others to try and devise a plan, "Okay, Viper, Mantis, you two can fit through these holes, I want you to fly through, and take them out as quikly and quietly as you can, then we can-" "Uh, Tigress?" Po interupted her before she could finish, she looked at him a bit mad at the moment for his rude interjecting of her planing, "Yes Po?" she said showing the agrivation in her voice, "Enlai's gone." he told her pointing behind her where the black binturong had once stood, she looked down at the two guards, her eyes narrow with fury, one of the guards went flying through the air after recieving a kick to the back of the head from the civet, he went flying into his brother in arms and ceased to move, the other thief fell onto his back, with the other on top oh him, "What the-?" he uttered in pain unable to finish speaking before Enlai jumped forward and punched him in the face, knocking him out cold.

As Enlai was retrieving his equipment, Tigress came down the small pathway in a quik and furious gait, her face stating she was about to skold the one who had betrayed her leadership, "Binturong, what was that?" she asked loudly not realizing she might be giving away their position in the thieves camp, he turned around and stared at her with a mixture of anger and sorrow, "That was me getting my stuff back." he told her calmly, as he continued to grab and attach his belongings to his person. Tigress' anger grew even greater with his reply to her question, "Master Shifu put me in charge, that means even you have to follow my orders!" "Tigress, be quiet!" Monkey whispered aloud to her trying to remind her that they were supposed to be undetected, Enlai strapped the bladric around his shoulder and affixed his sword to his hip dangling from the leather straps around the sheath of his blade, he then hooked the bow around the quivel on his back which was stitched to the leather belting of the straps. "Look, I took them out quietly, and got my gear back, so just back off." he retalliated at her still giving the same expression of anger and sorrow, Tigress nearly jumped at him for saying something in the nature he did, but Po held her back trying to keep peace between the team, "You're supposed to be following me, not going out on your own as a rogue!" she yelled again trying to break free from Po's grip, "Tigress, please calm down." the panda said still holding her back.

Enlai finished equiping himself by picking up his spear, and carrying it with the blades pointed in front of him horizontally, he looked at Tigress who was giving him a death glare, never changing his own facial expression, he knelt down on one knee, and placed the spear next to him, hanging his head down, "I'm sorry..." he started off causing the female tiger to stop thrashing in Po's arms trying to get at the binturong, "I just couldn't stand to see them disrespect my fathers things any further." he tried to reason with her, she calmed down a bit at the sudden show of respect towards her, quirking an eyebrow at him, Po relaxed his grip around her as he felt her give, Enlai looked up at her, his eyes tearing a bit, "Any punishment you see fit, I wil humbly accept." Tigress couldn't believe what he was doing, to deny orders, and then give no fight against any punishment he was to recieve, she shook Po's hand off of her wrist, "Forget it, let's just get the prisoner, and get out of here." she commanded as she began to walk into another one of the tunnels to continue the mission.


	7. Incriminating evidence

Sneaking their way through the caves, Po, the five, and Enlai kept from speaking to one another to avoid being found, they discovered another tunnel leading to an opeing twice the size of the last one in which Enlai had stealthely taken out the two guards, and retreaved his equipment. Tigress looked at the opening from the last few feet of the tunnel, covered by shadows, she scoped out the entire area, and noticed one guard standing by an unconcious female tiger with grey fur, wearing all black, her clothing looking similar to Tigress' own, "Binturong, is that her?" she asked him as he closed a small gap between himself and her to confirm the prisoner. Tigress looked at him still awaiting his answer, he finally nodded his head, and readied his halberd, Tigress put a paw on the pole weapon and shook her head at him, "No, Viper, you take him out." she told the snake who was slowly slithering to the front for a better view, "Okay Tigress." Viper said making her way out of the tunnel, sneaking around the raccoon dog for a suprize attack, "Wait.." Enlai started off putting a paw on Tigress' shoulder pushing her back a bit, Tigress tried to protest by pushing forward but realized what Enlai was trying to tell them, "This is too easy, there should be more than one guard." he finished off as he and Tigress both looked around the opening of the cavern for any sign of traps, scanning all the walls, and the ceiling, "No traps, only one guard, Viper!" Tigress called out the her trying to get her attention, but also wanting to stay quiet enough not to allert the guard. It was too late, Viper had already taken him out with a few quik whips of her tail, eventually slaming him into one of the walls, knocking him out cold, Enlai looked franticly for anything falling from the roof, or flying from the cave walls, but nothing was happening, no spikes coming from beneeth the floor, no arrows flying from holes in the walls, not even a boulder falling down, just a stagnent room in a system of caverns filled with nothing but a fallen guard, a snake, and a tiger chained to a wall.

As they all came out of the tunnel, and entered the opening , the female tiger hooked to the wall began to awaken with a light groan, Enlai walked up to where she was with anger blazing in his eyes, gripping his spear to the point where his bones might have broken, "Fei Yen." he said as he pointed the blade of his halberd at her as she tried to get up, finding it hard to do with her paws bound together, "You again? Look, I didn't do it, I didn't even have the scroll when you caught me last time!" she screamed trying to get her point through with an ire filled glare at the the binturong, "True, but if you'll remember, I didn't search your entire person out of respect that you're a woman, and I didn't want you to get the wrong idea." Enlai replied, with a bit of a flustered face, the skin under his fur would have been red if it were visible under the mix of brown and black. Fei Yen rolled her eyes at the show of courtacy towards her gender, "Well, aren't you just the greatest gentleman?" she said disparagingly, causing Enlai to look at her with an insulted expression. Tigress shook her head at their small standoff, "Binturong, may I search her, seeing as you are not willing to?" she asked him catching his attention, he nodded turning around to let her go about the search, giving Fei Yen some privacy, he grabbed Po's shoulder and turned him around as well, "It's rude to stare at a woman as she's indecent." he said with a completely serious look, "You three, give the girl some solitude." he told Crane, Mantis and Monkey never changing his tone, trying to set example that the gave women a great deal of respect.

Tigress didn't have to search too long before she found something, she reached down Fei Yen's shirt and pulled out a cylinder, "Binturong." she called, stating what he was rather than saying his name to show superiority over him like she had done with any new member to the group, Enlai perked his ears up at the sound of her call, "Yes?" he said still trying to be quiet in the chance there may be other guards around, "Look at this." she told him walking over to show him the item, he turned around and widened his eyes at the sight of it, recognizing it instantly, he took it from Tigress and opened it up, dropping a scroll from inside, he then opened up the scroll a bit to read a small portion of it, "Well well, if it isn't the very scroll that master Fong Hei had displayed in his library." Fei Yen looked at the it with what looked to be a suprized face, "I... I have no idea where that came from!" she told him never changing her expression as he sealed up the container again, and placed it in his bag, he waved his hand at Tigress who did exactly what he was insinuating, she unhooked the chain attatched to the cuffs around the maltese tiger's wrists, "Fei Yen, under the orders of master Fong Hei, I'm taking you into custody..." Enlai started off as Tigress helped her to her feet, and pushed her along to start leading her out of the caves, "You are to be transported by myself back to the Emerald Temple for your sentencing, for theft and murder, most likely you are to be exicuted." he finished off as he too began to walk towards the tunnel they had come out of to retreat back to the outside where hopefully the storm had passed.

As they made their way to the entrance they had used for the system of caverns, the rain was letting up and the clouds moving away, "Good news." Monkey said as he pointed out of the cave with a smile, Po gave a bit of a nervous look as he reached the cliff they climbed to get up to the caves, seeing the steep and now wet ground along the mountaine side, "That's a... long fall." the panda said looking down, the ground a good hundred meters below, Enlai reached the cliff while holding the back of the grey tiger's shirt collar to lead her along, "How're we gonna get her down?" Mantis asked pondering what method they might use in order to descend safely down, Enlai stood at the edge of the cliff, never letting go of the prisoner, constantly studying the problem, until he raised his head with a thought, "Got it, Po, can you go first?" he asked as he grabbed the cuffs around Fei Yen's wrists and pulled them over his head forcing her arms around his neck, "Hey!" she screamed in protest to the position they were in, "I thought you were a gentleman." she continued in an annoyed tone quirking a brow at him. Po started down the mountaine side first as Enlai had requested, the bitnurong then motioned for Tigress to go, she obliged knowing what his plan was, he himself went after her, sliding the claws on his left paw down the mountaine with a sharp grip to make sure he and his prisoner both didn't fall to their deaths, his other arm wrapped around Fei Yen's back his paw gripping her right side lightly making sure not to let his hand slip either up or down to cause her discomfort as a female. Monkey, Crane, Viper, and Mantis followed after them, sliding down at a steady pace, making sure not to get ahead of them, until eventually something went wrong, the ground under Monkey's feet began to shift along with the movement of them sliding down, a small land slide starting, Monkey yelled in fear, catching the attention of everyone bellow him, Viper and Mantis tried to reach him before he fell, but were too late, and Crane was too far above them to quikly fly down and grab him before he hit anyone else below him. The first one to be hit was Enlai who reacted by grabbing his tail as he fell by, causing the primate to yell again in pain from his tail being jerked, "Gotcha!" Enlai said as he tightened his grip, Monkey recovered from the insedent and reached up to grab the bottom of Fei Yen's pants, "Carefull!" she screamed at him as she looked down, "You almost pulled my-" she stopped as her eyes got wide, her head started swaying a bit, and she turned her head back around burrying it in Enlai's chest, he noticed and began to question to himself what was wrong with her, but he decided to ignore it, and kept his grip trying to stay still while Monkey repositioned himself.

They reached the base of the mountaine and began to walk back in the direction of the valley, Enlai took Fei Yen's arms from around his neck, and checked his equipment to make sure nothing was missing, especially the scroll. Satisfied that nothing had disappeared, he continued on following the others back to the village, "Enlai, may I speak with you?" Monkey called out to him as he stopped so the binturong may catch up to him, Enlai pushed the prisoner forward, as he reached him, "Keep walking, Po, keep an eye on her!" he told Fei, and then called out to the panda so he and Monkey may converse, Po accepted with a nod, as Enlai turned his attention back to the primate, "Yes?" he said ready to answer any question he was asked, Monkey rubbed the back of his neck pushing the bright orange and yellow fur around with his fingers, "Thanks for the help." he told the binturong looking a bit embarrased about the incedent, Enlai gave a small smirk and just acted as though he didn't do anything really, "Sure thing." he said continuing to follow the others, Monkey started walking beside him to speak again, "So... what do you think was wrong with her?" he gave a confused look at first, but then remembered what had happened when she had looked down, "Probably vertigo, maybe she's scared of hieghts." he answered still holding a questionable expression on his face, "Doesn't matter, all that does matter is she's back in my custody, and I can take her back to the temple for her sentence." a firey look went into his eyes as he spoke, he slung his spear over his shoulder and began to jog, trying to catch up to the others so as to make sure nothing happened that would allow Fei Yen to escape again.


	8. Unfortunate discovery

Upon reaching the broken bridge on the very outside of the village, Enlai stopped dead in his tracks and began to look at the road leading alongside the mountains they had just arived from, still holding the back of Fei Yen's shirt collar, he forced her to stop with him, "Well..." he said starting off catching the attention of Po and the others, "... I suppose this is where we part." the binturong finished with a smile, as he then gave a bow forward, unable to give the respective kung fu bow in order to keep a tight hold on his prisoner, "I cannot thank you all enough." Tigress was the first to bow back at him, followed by Po and Monkey, then the others, "Especially you Po, I still haven't paid you back for aiding me when I was unconcious." Po laughed lightly at the comment, and began to wave a giant paw at him, "You don't have to pay me back." Po told him still smiling, Enlai smirked at his humility. "Oh but I do, unfortunately I have to transport this abhorent woman back to be given her punishment first-" "And you can't do that alone either!" came a voice at the other end of the destroyed bridge, they all looked over to see Master Shifu on the other side staring at them, his arms behind his back, the ever constant gaze he gave spread across his face. Shifu jumped up high into the air before he landed on the same side of the bridge they were all on, landing with a small thud before standing up straight, "Master Shifu?" Enlai said in a questioning tone, looking a little confused as to what the small master of kung fu ment by what he had said on the other side of the river, "I think in order to avoid your prisoner escaping you again, perhaps you should take the Five, and the Dragon Warrior with you just to be safe." He told the raven colored young man smiling lightly at him, Enlai still was confused, "Five?- Wait, Dragon Warrior? that's who they are?" he started yelling the questions in disbeliefe he had been aided by the legends themselfs and was too oblivious to realize it, Fei Yen started to laugh to the point she was covering up her face with her bound paws, "The Dragon Warrior? Him?" she almost fell over from laughter at what she was hearing, but was kept up by an unamused looking Enlai, most likely sore at the fact she would laugh at such a thing.

Enlai shook his head at both his impolite captive, and the offer from Shifu, "Master Shifu, you've already given me more than I can repay, I couldn't possably-" "Unfortunately you will, I owed your father a great debt, I foolishly challenged him to a game of Mahjong, and lost a great deal of which I never fully paid back, but being the kind and caring man he was, he never mentioned it when we crossed paths." Shifu told the young binturong who then started to show his light brown eyes shining with tears before wiping them away and nodding, "He was a very understanding man, never judged anyone, he always said it wasn't his place to." Enlai began to laugh a bit at the memory of how accepting his father was of other peoples ways or problems. Shifu began to stare at the female tiger Enlai had a tight grip on with a serious face, "So, this is the one who killed Tao?" he asked them all, recieving nods and answers consisting of "Yes" or "Yes Master", "I didn't kill him!" Fei Yen yelled again the same innocent look on her face, Enlai stared at her with blazing eyes, his fist wrapped tightly around his spear, Shifu put a paw up to stop the binturong from saying anything to her "Young man, calm down, she'll get her sentence if she's guilty." "But she is guilty... Look!" Enlai told the master as he reached into his bag and pulled out the scroll she had stollen, handing it over to Shifu. He pulled the scroll out of its casing and opened it, reading a bit of it before grunting and shaking his head in disappointment, "Young man, did you ever read the scroll Fong Hei had displayed?" he asked lowering the item, Enlai began to look at him with yet another expression of confusion, "Y- yes, I read it all the time in the Emerald Temple, I'd always read it when I went into the library, I was captivated by it." he answered trying to figure out what the master was trying to tell him, "Did you ever notice the errors Lei Huan made in his spelling?" "Yes, he was on his death bed when he wrote each part of the chronicle, he was bound to make mistakes and clearly didn't want to waste time correcting them, they said he died just minutes after the completion of the last scroll." Enlai told him, showing he knew about the entire series that the chronicler had written and that he knew about the history of it, Shifu handed the scroll back to him never changing his expression, "Look closely." Shifu commanded him to do so, Enlai followed the order, and overlooked it carefully, his eyes widened with realization as he closed the scroll up, "No errors..." he whispered to himself but the others still heard his words and they all began small light ghasps, Enlai became enraged at Fei Yen, his eyes burning like fire from a forge.

"What did you do with the real scroll?" he screamed the question at the grey tiger, who still gave her innocent looking gaze as she answered, "I don't have it, I never had it!" Enlai clinched his fist and raised it as he grabbed the front of Fei Yen's shirt ready to hit her, only to let it fall again, his respect towards the female gender overpowering his anger, Shifu waited for him to calm down as the others watched on in anxiety over how furious the binturong looked, "Young man, two things." Shifu started as Enlai fell to his knees feeling like he was on the biggest wild goose chase that ever was made, "One, you should not accuse one of something so quikly, and two." he paused as he walked over to the sorrowfull raven colored being lifting his chin up with one claw, "You have just showed you have more of your father in you than you could ever imagine." he finished off reffering to the control Enlai had shown by not hitting the defenceless girl. "Mister Enlai, might I ask how long ago it was that the scroll was stollen?" Viper asked going a bit off topic about the thing, but seeking to know more about what had happened, Enlai looked over to her as Shifu let go of his chin, the binturong wiping away more tears trying to stream their way down his face, "The... night of the Summer Festival was when it happened." he answered her as he began to get up, making sure his prisoner didn't move, "During which time Fei Yen was reported to have been seen in the area." "I wasn't anywhere near the Emerald Tample, I was at my hideout near the Abysmal Cliff- oh crap!" Fei Yen yelled realizing she had just gevin away the location of her hideout without catching herself early enough to stop, "Then why did Master Meng Li tell Master Fong Hei you did this?" Enlai tried to pry the answer from her without actually doing anything to her, "Maybe HE did it, I don't know!" she tried again to explain to them, her supposed innocence still showing in her eyes, "How dare you, Master Meng Li was a close friend of my father, and would never betray his own people!" "Enough!" Shifu yelled out trying to get everyong to calm down. Enlai wasn't having it though, and began to argue with the master, "Master Shifu, how could you even state this woman may be innocent of the crimes convicted against-" he was cut off by the small master grabbing his finger of which was pointed at him, and sticking his pinky up, Enlai imediately knew what was going on as the others stood still hoping the binturong wouldn't do anything foolish while in the devistating Wuxi Finger Hold, his eyes were filled with fear at what he had been put into, as the captive tiger braced for what was to follow if Shifu flexed his claw, "Shutting up." Enlai said quikly hoping Master Shifu would let him go, Shifu smiled at him knowing he had successfully gotten the binturongs full attention after that.

Enlai had recovered from his near brush with a messy demise at the hands of Master Shifu, and sat down in front of him ready to listen to any words he had to offer, while the others waited to see if their master still wanted them to travel to the Emerald Temple with the binturong to ensure the prisoner was delivered. Shifu paced infront of them all slowly so that he may speak to each and every one of them, "Take the girl back to Master Fong Hei, make sure nothing happens to her, and try not to lose your temper again, take an example from your father if you truelly want to keep his memory alive." he told Enlai as he continued to pace before turning to his own students, "Make sure nothing happens to either of them, I myself and Enlai are counting on you to see that Tao's death is avenged, but if this girl is not the one who did it, find the one who truelly is responsable." he finished off as they all bowed at him and simultaniously said "Yes Master." and with that, they all set out towards the Emerald Temple, with Monkey leading the way after passing Enlai who was gathering up his equipment quikly, "And Enlai." Master Shifu called out to him before he started to follow the others, the binturongs ears perked up a bit, "Study that scroll a bit more... it may lead to some answers." he told him as he jumped back across the broken bridge, Enlai stood up, and pushed Fei Yen on the back to get her moving, following Shifu's students, hoping that soon all the questions floating in his head would be answered.


	9. Cheng?

Enlai kept a tight grip on the back of Fei Yen's collar, making sure not to let her find any chance of getting away, she walked along never saying a word, her head hanging with her eyes pointed at the ground , tears streaming down her white cheeks, letting out a small shaking cry of sorrow every few seconds, Enlai ignored her, it was apperent to him that she was trying to play the pity card, he just stared straight ahead at the three masters leading through the forest, Tigress, Crane and Po, as Viper slithered behind him, along with Monkey who was carrying Mantis on his shoulder. Po began to hold his stomache a bit with his right paw in hunger, Tigress took notice and began to shake her head a little in disbeliefe, "Po, really?" she asked him, a hint of annoyance in her voice, Po smiled nervously at her as he laughed a bit at the sound of his growling gut. Enlai overheard what was going on ahead of him, and looked up at the trees they were passing under, until he saw one that had a few ripe looking peaches on the overhanging branches, he reached into his bag making sure not to give it his full attention so as to keep Fei Yen in his grasp, he pulled out a steel disk with a giant circular hole in the very middle of it, making the object itself rather light in wieght. He gripped the very edge of the blade which wrapped around the entire outside of the disk and trew it at one of the branches, the disk whistling lightly as it flew, until a sharp knock rang out above them, the bladed cricle slicing through the stems of two of the peaches before sticking into a branch not far from them, the peaches fell infront of Po and Tigress, both of them catching the fruits a little confused. Enlai pushed the grey tiger out of the way, making sure she didn't run off as he lifted the head of his spear high into the air, forcing it through the hole in the disk that was stuck in the tree, he pulled away from the branch lightly until the blade gave and unwedged itself from the wood, ringing itself around the spear head, Enlai lowered his weapon and took the disk off putting it back in his bag. Everyone was giving the binturong strange looks about what he had just done, "Woah!" Po screamed out in excitement, scaring Enlai a bit at the sudden outburst "Where did you get that thing?" the panda continued on, shaking his fists up and down a bit as he usually did when ecstatic about something, "My... father." Enlai replied with a confused look at Po, wondering why he had lost his mind over something that seemed so trivial to himself, "What is it?" Mantis asked him, catching his attention slightly as he still faced the overzealous panda, "My father called it a Chakram... something he picked up during a journey to a country to the West, he loved to travel and learn new things." the binturong answered them as he took it back out and showed them the bladed disk, Tigress' eyes raced across the blade, examining how sharp it looked, "Interesting..." she said in a voice lighter than Enlai had thought possible for her, "Yeah, he got it from a... Rajput I think is what he called the man." he continued to tell them about it, with a bit of pride bubbling in his body.

The ratteling of linked chains brought the group back to reality, Enlai's head shot up remembering he was supposed to be keeping an eye on the prisoner, his heart started to beat faster as he thought she was preforming another escape attempt. They all looked over to the maltese tigress only to see her lifting the cuffs up with both paws to wipe away the tears still streaming down her face, letting out yet another whimper in realization her life was most likely going to end in a few short days, Enlai was a little confused as to why she had not tried to flee at the chance that she was given, he crossed his arms as he walked toward her, "Figured you would have run at the opportunity you just had." Enlai told her as he reached for the back of her shirt collar again putting the blade back in his bag, "I see no point." she said lightly, his ears barely able to hear her words, but he had seen her mouth moving and pieced what bit he heard with the movement and understood her, "Finally submited have you?" he asked her as he motioned the others to begin walking again, Po leading the way as he bit into the peach he had just remembered he was holding, Tigress following him trying to catch up to hand him the one she had caught, Fei Yen let out a small whine as she spoke, "I've accepted my fate." she had finally replied to his question, Viper heard her and showed a face of pity, knowing that she was on her way to help someone deliver such a young person to their death, not even having the chance to really live their life, Enlai looked at the tigress in a bit of suprize that she had said something like that, but not letting his guard down in the chance that it was a trick, "Be thankfull that you actually had the chance to come to terms with your fate, my father should have been so lucky-" "But... " she started off, stopping when she saw a trace of tears in the binturongs eyes, she herself began to shed water from her eyes again, before hanging her head down again, and whispering, "But I didn't kill him..." Enlai grew furious at the girl, enraged by the fact she would continue to tell such a lie even after acceptance of what was to come.

It was a very sad looking Viper who had called out to the ire filled binturong who's eyes were burning with such intinsity that he looked to be a demon of wrath embodied in the corpse of a mortal, Viper jumped at the sight of his eyes, unable to speak after she had stopped Enlai from doing anything he would regret to the grey tigress. Fei Yen was showing signs of immense fear in her eyes at the sight of Enlai nearly losing his mind in rage, "Warrior I swear, I've never even been to the Emerald Temple!" she cried out, as she fell to the ground, Monkey rushing over to help her keep her back off of the ground in the event Enlai went berserk and decided to attack her, "Oh, then I guess it was just some other grey tigress who used sorcery on my father which made him age to death in a matter of seconds!" he screamed as loud as he could stopping all noises surounding them, everyone was silent, all that was heard was the heaving of breath the binturong was taking in and letting out. Enlai's eyes were still blazing, Fei Yen stopped crying when she heard him speak of sorcery, she had a look across her face that said she knew something about it, as her eyes averted Enlai's, "Cheng." she said quietly to herself, but loud enough for Monkey to hear her as he held her up, "Cheng?" he asked, a bit confused, "Cheng?" Enlai questioned her, letting off to the others that he may have known who she was reffering to, "Xua Cheng? the white demon, the snow colored fox with a heart of black, that Cheng?" he continued on with the names that had apperently been given to the man, she nodded her head along with letting out a quiet "Yes.". Enlai stared at her with sceptisism writen across his black and grey face, "Xua Cheng has been dead for twenty years, my master killed him himself after he tried to overtake the temple with his small army." everyone listened in as Enlai's temper seemed to be dieing down, Fei Yen shook her head furiously at the comment, "No, he's alive, he... he raised me." Enlai's face went from mild anger to back to sceptical again, most certain she was lieing again, "Look!" she said trying to reach down the collar of her shirt, she pulled something up out of her coverings, a small strand of braided string wrapping around her neck, with a triangular object attetched, Enlai recognized it the second he saw it, his jaw dropped open in suprized, "My master's missing scale." he said as he reached down for it, taking it from her paw, her eyes lighting up a bit in hope that he would maybe try to reason with her, "He... gave it to me as a child." she told him letting her arms drop, the cuffs letting out a heavy thud as they hit the ground, "My master lost this to Cheng during the battle... " the binturong told them all lightly, the entire group was relieved for the fact that he was no longer filled with intense ire towards anyone at the moment.

Enlai grabbed the cuffs around Fei Yen's wrists and pulled her up slowly, letting her have a bit of controll over how fast she got to her feet, he put the scale at the base of her throat and let it drop back into her shirt, "Perhaps you are innocent, but you're still a suspect... " the binturong told her as he began to lightly push her along, a little more lenient towards her now that she had revieled a great secret to them, "After all, how do I know Cheng didn't teach you any magic?" Fei Yen gave a bit of a smugly ammused look at him, "If he had, don't you think I could have broken free from these bindings already?" she asked him with a slight laugh pushing through the tears that remained on her face from earlier, Po bit into the second peach they had gotten, satisfied that things had calmed down a bit, Enlai looked at him with a bit of disgust at his eating manners before turning his attention back to the grey tigress, "You bring up a strong point... I'm going to give a bit on the accusations, but I'm still suspicious about you." he answered as he mearly walked beside her, not pushing her back, nor pulling her cuffs, staying true to his word about leniency, she just continued walking, never saying anything else for the fact she was deep into thought about something, Enlai noticed, and at the same time a question had poped into his mind, "What would Cheng hope to gain by stealing the scroll, and letting you take the fall for it though?" he asked her, somewhat expecting the answer she gave him as she looked over to him with confused looking eyes, "That's what I'm trying to figure out."


	10. Old friend, more questions

As the edge of the forest came into view, so did the rolling hills just on the other side of a clear field, the road upon which they treaded went around a cliff near the breaking of trees with another road leading off through the large flat plain, the setting sun starting to disappear behind the protrusions of earth, a small village settled on the hillsides with the road leading straight through it, already lit up with lanterns awaiting the approaching dusk. Enlai and Tigress both thought in the same sence when they saw the buildings, "We have to stay away from any villages, Master Fong Hei wants this mission kept a secret." the binturong reminded them, as he gently grabbed Fei Yens shoulder to stop her from marching, Tigress nodded, acknowleging his request, "We should make camp in the forest, somewhere off the road, and away from the edge to avoid being seen by any of the villagers, or worse." everyone started to walk back into the trees until they heard the clanking of metal coming up from around the other side of the cliff, headed straight for them on the trail, they all turned around ready to fight in the case that it was a group of bandits. The sound grew louder as it approached them, Enlai readied his spaer, holding it out right with one arm, the other making sure the prisoner didn't escape despite the fact she had accepted her fate.

The object making the sound manifested around the cliff, an elderly male rabbit pulling a rather large cart from a handle had slowly come into view, the man strugling to keep the cart moving, metal pots and other kitchen wares hanging from the sides, with clay jars in the middle surrounded by a barrier of wood on the wagon. They all lowered their guard, seeing it was just a harmless man most likely trying to get home after selling his wares in the village, he stopped to breath for a few short moments after tapping the cart a few times, "Need to take a break?" a feminine voice came from the back of the cart, the woman staying hidden behind it to start pushing when the man had caught his breath, "Yeah, I'll be fine in just a min-" he stopped answering as he saw the group in front of him, all of them giving mixed expressions at the man, his eyes grew larger, realizing of whom he was in the presence of, he quikly bowed his head in respect. "Masters, i-it's such an honor to see you!" he said aloud, Tigress trying to calm him so as not to attract the attention of anyone else, but failing as the man wasn't listening to her, too busy calling to the woman behind the cart to show her who they had just run into on the road. "Miss, come see who's on their way to the village!" he yelled in a tired sounding voice, Tigress now joined by the others trying to get him to stay quiet, "No, sir, please we-" "Coming!" the voice interupted Po who immediately slapped his giant paw against his head, Enlai's heart was racing at the fact the news may be all over China in a matter of weeks if they saw Fei Yen in cuffs. The woman came around the cart, a young grey brown feline with two large dark grey spots on each arm, and two off the same on the sides of her face, dressed in all green vest, pants and gloves, carrying a staff with her, Crane lifted his head in surprise, unable to believe who the woman was, "Mei Ling?" he said catching the attention of all the others, pushing forward slightly for a better view, the girl had stopped in her tracks, her eyes going wide as she dropped her staff.

"Crane!" she screamed in glee as she ran towards him smiling widely, Crane smiled as well taking a few steps in for the hug he was about to recieve, she pounced at him wrapping her arms around his slinder body, not even paying attention to how tightly she was squeezing him, "By my ancestors, how have you been?" Crane could barely speak from the preasure of her hug, but managed to spit out the word "Good." in response. She finally let go of him as he ghasped a bit for air, holding his wing over his chest to try and ease the preasure, "W-what are you doing here Mei?" he asked folding his wing back into place with a smile still crossing his gaunt beak, "Well, I saw Mr. Dao here having trouble with his cart, so I decided to help him." Mei Ling pointed at the rabbit who was still in awe of the fact he had run into the five master and the Dragon Warrior, "I think he ment why aren't you back at Li Dai?" Viper had corrected the still in shock bird, grinning at the young cat she had only heard about from her fellow master, Mei Ling jumped in realization she had not properly greeted the masters, as she bowed quiky, faster than the elderly rabbit had done, "S-so sorry, masters!" she yelped the words out a bit with embarresment, the masters bowing back at her, "Um, I'm out here lookign for whoever stoll my master's scroll." the young feline told them as she rubbed the back of her head, Enlai was the first to take the one question everyone was thinking of and form it into words, "What kind of scroll?" he asked her gripping onto Fei Yen's shoulder a bit tighter to the point she was in a bit of pain, "Lei Huan's chronicels of the thousand thieves of Zhou Feng." Everyone turned their attention to the grey tigress bound in iron cuffs, Fei Yen started stammering, trying to reason with her captures, "Hey, I didn't even have the real one that he was searching for!" she yelled out pointing her head toward Enlai who was staring at her with burning eyes yet again, "How do I know you weren't working with thos thieves that "Captured" you?" Mei Ling was confused about the situation she had just walked into upon being reunited with her old friend, Fei Yen saw that she would have no success in trying to reason with them, "Miss." Enlai asked never looking away from his prisoner, Mei Ling looked over to him, sure that the person who stoll her master's scroll was standing before her, already captured and bound, "May I ask when your section of the chronicels was stollen?" he asked her, the five and Po were confused about where he was trying to lead the conversation, Mei Ling thought for a moment as to when her master had sent her to find the scroll, "Um... the night of the Summer festival." everyones hearts skipped a simultanious beat, Fei Yen's eyes lit up, knowing they wouldn't suspect her of as much as they did at first.

"Miss, I need to be getting home." the old rabbit had interupted, Mei Ling's head shot up in realization that the man was still there, as he went back to his cart to try and pull it again with little success, "If you want, you're friends may also stay the night." Mr. Dao continued, causing a bit of confusion amongst the group, "Um... we don't want to be a burden." Tigress replied to the kind offer, afraid they had already let too much out about the task they had been given, "Nonsense, I have plenty of space for you all." "Are you sure you don't mind Mr. Dao?" Mei Ling asked him, the man laughed a bit at the question, "Of course not, I promised you a room for your help, and I have plenty more for your friends." the elderly man just smiled as he tried to move the cart again, before Tigress went over to pull it herself, with Po following going behind the cart to push, the man started to lead them down the road leading through the field, the masters and warriors following him, "Thank you for your generosity sir, but could you please keep our presence here a secret, we don't want anyone to know about our prisoner." the old man laughed at Tigress' words, showing his amusement, though Tigress had no idea what she had said that was humorous, "Don't worry my dear, most people think I'm senile anyway, they wouldn't give anything I say a second thought." he had told her assuring they had nothing to worry about.

Enlai raised a brow at the mans comment before redirecting his attention to Fei Yen who was whispering a bit trying to get his attention, "What?" he said in a semi serious tone while still pushing her back gently to lead her, "How could I have been in two different locations at once?" she asked him still whispering trying to stay quiet enough not to let the others hear, Enlai looked ahead again, his face shining a light brown in the last bit of sunlight peaking ofer the hilltops, "I must admit, things are starting to wiegh you out of question, but I'm still not enirely convinced." the binturong answered her still pushing on her back, unsure as to what was going on, Fei Yen looked at him still a bit anguished inside from what was happening to her, she hung her head looking down at the ground, "Warrior, I..." she started before shaking her head stopping herself, Enlai looked down at her, awaiting for her to continue, willing to listen to her now that even more evidence pointing to another criminal had been found, "Speak if you wish." he told her, she opened her eyes in surprise that he seemed to want to hear her now, she looked up to him to see he was staring back at her, awaiting her continuation, "I-I'm sorry about your father... but please believe me, I didn't kill anybody, I'd never kill unless my own life depended on it, and from the way you and their master spoke, he wouldn't even wound a woman." Enlai looked ahead again, his eyes gleaming with a bit of water as the last ray of light sunk behind the hills, he took his large paws off of her back, showing he would give a small amount of trust in her, "Well thank you... but until proven completely innocent, I cannot let you go." "I understand." Enlai halted dead still, unable to believe what she had just said, no longer fighting, not even making anymore smart retaliating words of sarcastic nature or otherwise.


	11. A home for the night

Upon ariving at Mr. Dao's home, Crane and Mei Ling were catching up, while Mr. Dao directed Po and Tigress to the area he kept his cart, Enlai was still walking beside Fei Yen, making sure she didn't try anything, a thought had poped into his head, he looked over at Viper, Mantis and Monkey who were conversing amongst themselves, "Master's, could you watch her for a moment?" he asked them catching their attention, Monkey gave him a thumbs up as they all began to walk closer to the prisoner, Enlai stepped away into the light of a lantern Mr. Dao had hanging at the corner of his house. He pulled out the scroll casing from his bag, and unscrewed the black cap to it, letting the scroll fall into his giant paw, imediately unraveling it to read, his eyes started racing across the writings, Crane saw the binturong over Mei Ling's shoulder while she was telling him something about one of her students at the Li Dai school she had left to her own master while she was gone. Mei Ling noticed he wasn't paying attention anymore, she turned her head to see what Crane was looking at, Enlai let out a slight grunt as they both walked over to him to investigate what he was doing, "Enlai, what is it?" Crane had asked in a curious souding voice, the binturong answered without averting his gaze from the scripture, "Master Shifu said to study this scroll, and I was just wondering..." he cut himself off as he continued to go over the writings, Crane and Mei Ling's interests were fully caught at what he might have found, "I'm trying to remember the exact errors that were on the original scroll, they might have held something." he finished as he put the scroll back into its casing, and into the bag, "Like a secret code or something?" Mei Ling asked him, as she peered into his suply bag at the many strange things held within it, such as the disk he had thrown earlier that day, along with wooden cylinders with symbols on them, rope, fuses, and other items of which she was unsure he may plan to use them for. Enlai nodded at her, still thinking about it, cut off by the aproaching sound of Po and Tigress talking to each other, Mr. Dao following with a tired smile, "We can decipher it later, right now, I'm starving." Crane told them as Enlai motioned for the others to bring Fei Yen to the door the elderly rabbit opened to let them into his home.

As they entered Mr. Dao's house, each member of the group took in how beautiful the inside was, outside it looked to be nothing more than a regular old house, but inside was lit up with a mixture of red, orange, purple, and green lanterns lighting up the main room, paper doors on either side most likely leading to seperate bedrooms or other, the lights creating a rainbow all throughout the rooms, Po's eyes lit up brightly at the sight, as the old man crossed the room after grabbing his cane he had left at the door before he set out for the village that morning, the stick tapping the floor lightly as he crossed, "Chang Ying, I'm home." he called out as he walked to a table set in a small nook of the main room, "Grandpa?" a feminine voice came from around a wall leading to what looked to be a kitchen, "I thought I told you to send Mr. Zhu to retreave me when you were ready to-" the young female rabbit paused her voice as she came around the doorway and saw their guasts standing there, "Um, hi." she said with an unsure voice and exrpession waving a small white paw at them, "Don't worry girl, these are the Furious Five and the Dragon Warrior." her grandfather ensured her, her eyes went wide as she started fumbling to clean her robes in order to look presentable to the masters, until Tigress put up a paw to halt her from doing so, showing they understood if she was a bit dirty from doing house work, she bowed and looked over at her grandfather as he sat at the table, "Grandpa, I don't think we have enough food for everyone." she told him looking back and forth between him and everyone else.

Enlai set his bag down in a corner so as to keep it out of the way of the others treading in the room, followed by his spear, and other weapons he was carrying, Mei Ling grew even more curious about whom her old friend was traveling with as she watched him unequip himself, she tapped on Crane's back to get his attention, "Hm?" he hummed as he caughter her sight, "Why does he have so much equipment?" she asked him pointing a gloved claw at the binturong, Crane shrugged his wings up with an answerless expression, "Uh oh." they all heard Mantis say, they turned to look at whatever he was reffering to with his words, and saw Po holding his stomache in hunger, Tigress imediately slapped her paw against her head in disbeliefe as Mr. Dao began to laugh lightly at the panda, "There is a shop that is usually open in the village at night if you're hungry." Mr. Dao informed them as his grandaughter went back into the kitchen, Enlai grabbed his bag from the corner and slung it over his shoulder, "I'll go, it'll be my treat." "I'm coming!" Po said happily with a warm smile across his face as he ran for the exit, "I'll come along too, Monkey, make sure the prisoner doesn't escape." Tigress told them as she reached the door they had entered, Po opened it up and waited for the other two to exit, "Hurry back." Crane said with a smile as Mei Ling raced for the door, "Hey, um..." she stopped, trying to remember the bitnurongs name so she could adress him properly, "Enlai-" "Enlai!" she cut Crane off after he had informed her, the binturong looked at her a bit confused, "Can I look at the weapons you're leaving here, I'll be careful not to damage them." she smiled widely at him, from it he could tell she ment no solace, she was just curious about him and eagerly wanted to learn as much as she could about him, Enlai smiled back at her, showing a sharp tooth peaking out of his mouth as he did so, "Yeah, just make sure you set them back up in the corner to where they won't fall." he answered her, she clapped her paws together interlocking her appendeges as she retreated back into the house with glee.

"Uggghhh, how much longer?" Po let out in agrivation from hunger, as they were closing in on the village, "Po, patience." Tigress told him a bit annoyed at his whining, "Yeah Po, I once went ten days without eating as part of my training, and I didn't complain half as much as you are now." Enlai added on with a playful tone, telling the panda he wasn't trying to be mean or out do him, Po's face went from sour with hunger to wide with suprize, "Who made you train like that?" Tigress asked with a bit of curiousness in her voice, but not enough so as to keep her calm and collective demeanor showing. "My father." Tigress' face joined the expression Po had been showing, "I thought you said he was a kind and understanding man?" Po had said with a questioning tone near the end of his sentence, "He was, but he also understood that in order to survive the trials of life, you had to be tough." Tigress nodded in agreement to the way Enlai's father thought, showing she understood his methods completely after the binturong had explained.

As they reached the village, nearly all of the lanterns had been blown out by the people living there, save for a few overhanging above some shops and merchant carts that were still active, they saw one cart was full of vegitables, and another was selling spices raight across from it, Enlai raised a brow in thought as he looked between the two merchants, "How about some stew for dinner?" he asked Po and Tigress, recieving a smile from the master of the tiger style, and a growling stomache followed by smacking noises from Po who was licking his lips in anticipation for the meal, Enlai couldn't help but laugh at the pandas antics, surprizing them both with his show of ammusement, never having heard him laugh up to this point, "Come on, I'm buying." he said as he finally calmed himself down walking towards the vegitable stand, "Good evening my friends!" the male boar at the cart yelled out as they approached, "What can I get for you on this beautiful night?" he added as Enlai went reaching into his bag, before he pulled out a cloth with the ends bound together tied by a small rope, he threw it to Po who fumbled to catch it, "Po, get some spices from the merchant over there, cinnamon, saffron, whichever looks good, here, ask him to fill up this container." he told the panda as he went into his bag again before throwing a cylinder into Po's large paws. Tigress looked at Enlai with a slight smile as she put her paws on her hips, "Since when are you in charge binturong?" she asked in a teasing voice as Po went to the other stand, Enlai looked at her a bit nervous, realizing he had just taken matters into his own hands for a moment, "I- I... Sorry, I guess I'm just hungry and want to get the food ready." he told her a bit embarresed about his sudden takeover of command, the merchant began laughing at their back and forth, "Looks like I know who makes the rules in your family." he said teasingly at the binturong whos eyes instantly went wide realizing the man thought they were a couple, "Oh no, we're not-" "It's alright young man, no shame in being loyal to your wife." he added before Enlai could explain, "Bu- but we're not- oh nevermind." he said giving up, seeing it pointless to continue, Tigress began to chuckle lightly at his somewhat humiliation before recieving a stare from him which in a way spoke a language of its own as if saying "Shut it".

Back at Mr. Dao's home, Mei Ling was intrigued by the weaponry Enlai had been carrying with him, mainly the spear of his she was slinging around as if fighting someone who wasn't really there, she stopped as she sliced the side blade down through the air and smiled as Crane watched her amazed at how much better she had gotten with a weapon even though when they had met she was already the star pupil at Li Dai, "I can see why he likes this thing, the side blade could easily pull an enemy weapon out of their hands!" she said aloud not realizing how overzealous she was coming off about it, Crane gave a slight laugh at her as she put the spear back in the corner with care, "what's so funny feather head?" she asked while laughing with him, "Oh nothing, just happy to see you again." he answered while taking his straw hat off and placing it against the wall near the door.

Viper, Mantis and Monkey were still watching over Fei Yen to make sure she didn't try anything, though Viper was more preoccupied watching Crane and Mei Ling catch up, she let out a sigh of awe at the sight, "Aww, isn't that sweet? I wish I could visit my parents and sisters." she said catching the others attention, "At least you know your father." Mantis said pushing a chuckle through his words, Viper rolled her eyes knowing what had happened to the patriarch of his family, "Wish I knew what it was like." they all turned their heads to face Fei Yen, who was proping her cuffed paws on her knees leaning against the wall opposite of the exit to the house, her head hanging down facing her lap, "What?" Monkey asked, a bit clueless as to what she was talking about, "Friends, never had any, Master Cheng said friends were useless, and held you back from your true potential." their mouths went agape at what she had just told them about the man who supposedly raised her, "That's horible!" Viper yelled out catching the attention of Crane, Mei Ling and Mr. Dao who was playing a game of Mahjong by himself, causing him to jar his hand a bit sending peices flying off the table. Fei Yen just shrugged her shoulders at the comment, "I never payed attention to what he told me, He was just so angry all the time that I did what I could to ignore him." she continued to tell them, lifting her head a bit with a slight smile, "That would always infuriate him even more, he'd usually punish me by bounding me with his magic, and forcing horrid thoughts into my head." her voice began to shudder at the memories of her upbringing, the torture she had told them she went through as a child. Viper was about to ask another question from her until Fei Yen started pouring tears out of her eyes followed by cries of tormented thoughts, "One day, he finally got fed up with my disreguard for his lessons, and he..." she burried her head in her paws, literally bawling at this point. Mei Ling went over to try and comfort her, kneeling down to put a paw on the prisoners shoulder, Fei Yen looked up to her seeing only a bright smile along with empathetic stone colored eyes, Mei Ling proceeded to wipe away the tears from the grey tigress' eyes with her gloved paw. Fei Yen's voice continued to shake with sorrow, "W- why are you being nice to me? Accourding to that warrior who cought me, I diserve the punishment I'm to recieve when he delivers me to his temple." she turned her head away to avert facing anyone, Mei Ling continued to smile, "Your eyes." she said as she grabbed Fei Yen's cheek and turned it toward her to look at her eyes, "What?" "Your eyes, they don't lie, I can tell just by looking at them every word you just said was true." Fei Yen looked at her in confusion, still shedding tears out along with small whimpers, "Tell me, did you take the scrolls?" Mei Ling asked her in a serious tone, eagerly seeking the answer, hoping her eyes would tell the truth like they had been doing so far, "No, and I didn't kill the warriors father either!" she screamed her innocence again, her eyes watering dripping down onto her face, Mei Ling smiled at her after looking deep into the orange colored soulful pools, satisfied with the answer, she leaned in and wrapped her arms around the weaping prisoner, hugging her tight, leaving the others to wonder if she was truely innocent of the crimes, or if she herself was a victim, "I believe you." Mei Ling said to her, the power of her words sending Fei Yen into even more sorrow as she tried to hug her back with her bound paws.


	12. Friend turned foe, and vice versa

After purchasing the ingrediants for the stew Enlai was planning to make, Po joined back with both he and Tigress with a full container of something he thought looked decent for flavor, the bitnurong both was curious, and a bit fearful as to what he may have found, "How's this?" Po asked as he took the lid off of the cylindricle object Enlai had given him to fill up, he looked in it to see a bunch of eight pointed star shaped things with a brown color, he smiled at the sight, knowing exactly what it was, "Ba Jiao, nice work Po, that'll give the vegitalbes a nice sweet taste." Po's mouth went into his wide warm smile, as Tigress took one of the one inch long stars and poped it into her mouth while holding the food in her other arm, she let out a hum of enjoyment of the flavor as she chewed on it, "I've heard these are supposed to make your breath fresher." she told them as she began to lead them out of the village. Enlai began to follow Tigress, but was stopped by an aproaching sound, his ears twitched with each follow through of steps coming up behind him, six sets of feet hitting the ground along with the sound of chimes ringing with each step, Po and Tigress heard it as well, and turned around to see a group of men dressed in servent clothing, two boars carrying swords on either side of four pigs holding up a carriage, Enlai threw the ingrediants he was holding at Tigress as he started running straight for the men with a smile plastered across his grey and black face. Enlai dove down infront of the carriage kneeling down as the guards began to unsheath their swords, thinking he was an attacker, Po and Tigress let out a sigh of reliefe realizing he was only introducing himself to whomever was in the cloth coverd seat the pigs were carrying, "I am Enlai Xuang, student of Master Fong Hei." he said lowering his head as he placed his large paw against his chest in a ball, he stayed there until a voice came from the coverings, "Enlai?" the men holding up the carrage looked up to the white cloth enveloping the person inside in secrecy, the courtains opened up quikly with a slight whoosh as they pushed the air surrounding them away, a large male feline stood in front of the seat, dressed in dark blue noble robes with gold trim going straight down the center of his chest, with a round hat to match, his pointed ears poking out from under where it was loosly sitting on his head, his fur a light brown color with black spots, and black tips on the ends of his ears, his glowing yellow eyes starring down at the binturong.

The large cat smiled at Enlai as Po and Tigress aproached him, "Enlai my boy!" the male lynx said as he jumped off of his charriot, and opened his arms wide for a hug, Enlai didn't hesitate, literally jumping into the mans arms laughing, "Enlai, it's so good to see you my child!" he yelled out as he spun the binturong around in a happy embrace, Tigress interupted the moment with a strained cough as she sturggled to hold the vegitables Enlai had forced upon her in a way saying "We're still here you know", They both looked at her wondering what was wrong, still smiling, until Enlai remembered they were still with him, having forgotten the very moment he caught sight of the carriage, "Oh, Master, this is Master Tigress of the Furious Five, and the Dragon Warrior, Po." the binturong said excitedly, the lynx's eyes going wide from hearing the title "Dragon Warrior" he bowed down in a quik motion, showing his pride to be in their presence, "Dragon Warrior, it is a great honor to meat you, and your team mate." Po bowed back at the man, unsure of who he was, but still staying humble the way their master had taught them to be, "Guys, this is Master Meng Li." Tigress' ears perked up at the mention of his name, remebering what Enlai had said earlier that day about someone by that name, "Ming Li? The one who saw Fei Yen steal the scroll and kill your father?" she asked him, Po's face went into a surprized look realizing he had completely forgotten about the eye witness, Enlai nodded his head, as Meng Li lowered his to show his sorrow for the loss of both Enlai's father, and his own friend. "How's the search going for that fiend Fei Yen?" Meng Li asked with his head still lowered, and his eyes glancing up, Enlai's eyes wondered around a bit, before looking into the lynx's eyes, he let out a disappointed sounding sigh and shook his head, "I've not found her yet, but I feel I may be getting close." Po and Tigress both looked at each other wondering why he had lied to the one who saw her commit the crimes, Meng Li gave a slight smile, "Well, as long as Tao's death is avenged, I'm sorry to cut this short, but the emperor has tasked me with relocating the remaining scrolls to avoid losing them as well." he started to climb back into his carriage, and sitting in his chair, "How many are you in possession of master?" Enlai asked him with a curious expression, the lynx continued to smile, amused at the curiousity he had come to know from the young warrior, "One at a time so if I manage to be captured, they won't get them all in one foul swoop." he pulled a scroll casing from his robe to show Enlai. The binturong held out a large paw toward the scroll, "May I see it master?" Meng Li laughed a bit at the request and threw it into Enlai's paw, "For you my boy, I'd trust anything." Enlai undid the top, and slide the scroll into his hand, he read over the writings as he opened it a bit, giving a smile as he closed it up again, and puting it back in the casing to throw it back to the lynx. "Thank you master, take care of it, we don't need anymore going missing." Enlai called out as he threw it back to the master who caught it and placed it back into his robes. Meng Li held up a claw at the young binturong telling him to wait a moment as he fumbled through the right side of his robes, he tossed a brown object into Enlai's paw, upon its landing he recognized it immediately, "You father gave me those, I thought maybe you might want them." Enlai bowed in respect towards the noble feline, as the courtains closed back up on the carriage, and the servents picked it back up to begin their transportation again, going down a road leading off of where they temselves had entered the village.

After walking back to Mr. Dao's home on the road for a few minutes, Po's curiousity couldn't be held in any longer, Tigress' was getting the better of her too as she stared at a silent Enlai walking ahead of them, "Um, Enlai?" Po began to ask, the binturong just grunted at him, awaiting the question, but showing he didn't really want to talk about it, "Uh, why did you lie to Master Meng Li about Fei Yen?" "Something's going on here, Fei Yen insists she's innocent, two scrolls went missing on the same night, with nearly one hundred miles between them, and she was in posession of a fake scroll." he answered the panda, never lookeing back or even slowing down his speed, "And now, Master Meng Li desn't look the same, I didn't want to say or do anything that may have tipped him off." Tigress and Po looked at each other a bit confused as to what he ment, "What do you mean Binturong?-" Will you stop calling me that?" he turned around and yelled at Tigress, who completely stopped surprized by his sudden outburst, nearly dropping the food she was carrying, Enlai closed his eyes and sighed in disbeliefe he had lost his temper again, "I... I'm sorry... I just..." he tried to get his appology completely out, stopping in between words to find more to fill in the spaces, "It's alright, I understand you're stressed about this whole thing." Enlai looked up to her as she spoke, never taking her in as the type to forgive someone so easily, "Anyway, he looked younger than the last time I saw him, and I don't think acupuncture can make such a drastic change." Tigress began trying to think, but could come up with nothing as an explination, Enlai's head poped up with a thought, he began breathing heavily at what was going through his mind, and took off for their home for the night, causing Po and Tigress to jump at the random desplay of action, they gave each other a short glance and took off after him to catch up.

As Po and Tigress were trying to catch up to Enlai who was only about fifty feet from the entrance of Mr. Dao's house, they could hear him yelling a name out as he ran, "Mei Ling!" he cried out, before he reached the door, he slung it open nearly scaring everyone inside out of their fur, feathers, scales and carapace. "Mei Ling!" he called out again, searching the room for her until he saw her sitting next to Fei Yen, comforting her, she tried to answer him but couldn't beat his question, "Mei Ling, what part of the thousand thieves chronicles did your master have?" he asked as he race over to her, completely ignoring everyone else, even Fei Yen who was still crying a bit, she stuttered to answer, still a bit in shock from the sudden burst he made when opening the door, "The... fifth chapter." she told him, his eyes went wide as he stumbled backwords and fell flat of his rear, he began to breath heavily as tears filled his eyes. "What was that about?" Tigress screamed as she entered the house, causing everyone to jump yet again, and forcing Chang Ying to pear around the wall leading to the kitchen in curiousity, "He did it." Enlai spat out in a mix of sorrow and disgust, his face completely ill looking at what he had figured out, "Who did what?" Tigress demanded to know what he was talking about as she threw the food at Po who was struggling to catch his breath after running, he tried to catch them, but wound up falling over with a loud crash in the process, "Meng Li stoll the scrolls!" he screamed in mental anguish about it.

Tigress' face was frozen in shock, the man whom they had just run into was now the one Enlai was supposed to be after, "What? How do you know?" she asked him with unaverting eyes, Po lifted his head up to listen to the explination Enlai was about to give, as did everyone else, especially Fei Yen who saw her freedom fast aproaching, "The one he had with him is the very one Mei Ling is in search for, and he flat out lied about them!" he started screaming as he jumped up and made a break for the door, Tigress grabbed his arm as he tried to run by, "What are you doing? Let go!" he yelled as loud as he could at her, "You can't go attacking him head on!" she yelled back trying to reason with him as she kept as good a grip on his wrist as she could, finding it hard to do between the thickness of his arms, and length of his fur, "Will you not let me avenge my father?-" "Let you? I'll help you avenge him for Master Shifu, but we need to think this through!" she again tried to reason, this time pulling him closer to grab his shoulders forcing him to face her, his eyes shining with tears, "He betrayed me, the son of his best friend whom he has now orphaned!-" "You don't completely know it was him!-" "Why else would he lie about the scroll?" the others stayed quiet, awaiting for the two to finish, not wanting to exacerbate things if it were even possible to do so. Enlai starred into Tigress' eyes awaiting her answer to his question, she loosened her grip on him and lowered her head shaking it slightly, "I... I don't know." she finally let out in a quiet tone, Enlai pushed her paws off of his shoulders and let out a sigh, "...That's what I thought." "Enlai, please..." his ears perked up at the sound of his name coming from her, not used to hearing it in her voice, "...Please, just be patient, I promise we'll redeem your father, but we need to find out as much about this as we can." he resisted the urge to give into the wrenching sickness in his stomache from the realization the man who helped raise him was now a suspect with strong evidence against him, Enlai found himself barely able to breath at the thought as he fell to his knees, "Enlai-" Tigress started but was unable to finish before the binturong wrapped his arms around her legs in a hug desperate for comfort, crying as he pressed his head against her legs, caught completely off guard by the sudden action, she found herself unsure of what to do. Her mind came to only one possible thing to do in response, she pushed him away gently, his arms going limp and letting go from knowing she was uncomfortable with him being that close, he hung his head down and continued shedding tears, the others being empathetic towards his situation, even Fei Yen was tearing up a bit from it. Tigress kneeled down in front of him as he continued, she smiled and grabbed his shoulder pulling him into a hug, Enlai was caught off guard by this, his eyes opening in surprize before closing again, a bit happier he had someone to console him, "We'll bring them to justice..." she told him as she held him by his shoulders pushing away gently, "...But I need you to stay focused, do as Master Shifu said, find out what they want with the scrolls, we're counting on you to remember everything about the one your master had."

After the scene had calmed down in Mr. Dao's home, and after Po and Mantis used the kitchen to make everyones dinner, Tigress, Crane and Mei Ling were gathered around Enlai who was studying the scroll they had found on Fei Yen in the caves, awaiting him to remember something about the original one, he let out a small grunt every now and then, he paused for a moment and went digging into his bag, he pulled out a brush, and a casing of ink, he dabbed the brush into the ink and began writing above each symbol to correct it, with Crane and Mei Ling trying to see what he was doing, as Tigress sat patiently awaiting him to finish. Enlai set the brush down and read over what he had written, "Is there anything within the errors?" Tigress asked him but recieved only silence from him, his eyes staring at the scroll with a completely focused gaze, until he nodded slowly, she leaned forward to listen to him as he started reading what he could remember and piace together, "Something about a trove... a... a black shpere of some sorts... and a purple light is all I could gather." he answered them, they looked amongst each other in a questioning manner, trying to figure out what it was trying to reffer to, "Order up!" Po called out as he exited the kitchen holding a steaming pot in his large black paws, as Mantis ran around passing out bowls, Enlai looked over to Po, and then over to Fei Yen who was being watched by Viper and Monkey.

He grabbed his bag, and reached inside to pull out a key, he got up and went over to the prisoner, "Guys, go eat, I'll take over watch." he said as he reached the two masters, they nodded and went to join the others as Po filled their bowls with stew, he grabbed the cuffs around Fei Yen's wrists and brought the key to the hole set between the cuffs to unlock it, her face was clueless as to why he had done so, "Wha-?" "You can't really eat properly with those things on, now can you?" he asked giving her a smile, she laughed lightly at the comment, as he turned to sit next to her and lean against the wall, "Just so you know, when you finish, I'm putting them back on just so our hosts feel a bit safer having you here." she nodde happily, understanding it may be a bit stressful on the Dao's to have the one who arrived bound in chains completely free, Po walked over to them and handed them both a hot bowl of stew with as smile. they both accepted carefully taking the food from his padded paws. Enlai imediately started eating the boild vegitables that had been cooked in the ground spice floating around in the broth, "Meng Li." Fei Yen said randomly as she looked down at her bowl, Enlai stopped sipping at the broth and looked at her a bit confused, letting out a hum of question toward her, "He's the one who said I was the one who commited both crimes, right?" the binturong lowered his head a bit with a sigh of anguish, "Yeah, he helped my father raise me after my mother died of river fever." Fei Yen kept her eyes on him, transfixed by the fact he had a past almost as tortured as her own. He took another sip of the broth, trying to keep what he was forcing down his throat from coming back up due to his sorrow for what seemed to be the loss of his only remaining parent to the hands of a mentor. "Fei Yen..." Enlai said as he struggled to keep his dinner down, patting his throat lightly with his giant paw, a ratteling noise caught her attention as each hit connected with his neck, he stopped to finish talking waving his paw a bit infront of him to emphasize his words some, "I'm sorr-" "Ooh, what's that?" Fei Yen interupted him as her eyes stayed fixed on the beads around his wrist, he looked at it and gave a slight smile, "Prayer beads, they were my father's, Meng Li gave them to me when we saw him in the village earlier... I now know why he didn't want them anymore." he hung his head down again, and brought the bowl back to his mouth for another sip. Fei Yen never let her gaze wonder from the young binturong as he let the bowl back down, he connected eyes with her a bit of a nervous look on his face from her unaverting attention towards him, "Uh, your stew's getting cold." he pointed a long claw at her bowl, she looked down at it and pulled her head back in surprize, fully forgetting she was even holding it, she lifted it quikly to her mouth and began slurping loudly, Enlai laughed a bit at her before he tried to put together what Meng Li's plan might have been, "What I'm trying to figure out is... why would Meng Li want the scrolls? the man is a noble, he has everything anyone could ever want." the grey tigress lowered her bowl after halfway emptying it in one go, "Maybe he's a collector of literature, like I'm a collector of jewls... though I only like them because they're really pretty." she laughed lightly at her own comment, and stopped as she heard Enlai laughing as well, he went to take another sip but decided to let it wait, "But to kill your friend for your own desire? and he could look at them any time he wanted, he's fourth in line to... be... emperor..." he looked over at the scroll which was laying just behind Viper who was keeping a close eye on it as she sat in a circle with her frineds.

Enlai jumped up spilling the remainder of his stew on the floor as he raced over and grabbed the scroll along with his calligraphy kit, starteling the masters with his sudden movements, he began reading over the writings and putting in more errors that were flowing into his memory, "Enlai?" Viper questioned in concern as he franticly wrote on the scroll, his eyes never blinking as they traced over every symbol. He threw down the brush, and read over the errors, "The sphere..." he wisped to himself, the others barely able to hear him, "What?" Tigress and Po both asked together, "He's after the sphere mentioned in the secret code, I remembered all the errors, listen." He paced around the room as he read, Fei Yen put her bowl down and went over to him as he started reading aloud.

"Lying within the great trove Zhi Sima had hidden away was a black transparent sphere, when I held it up, it began to glow a bright purple, before we knew what had happened it sucked the very life out of one of our men in a black aura, making the man whither as if he had died hundreds of years ago, and made myself appear to be younger and more able, upon relaizing its capability the others started to fight over it, I mayself knew China didn't need anything of such nature." Enlai lowered the scroll in astonishment of what Lei Huan had hidden in his writings. "Wow, that's worse than what happened to my dad." Mantis said jokingly, glancing at his friends to see if they had heard his humorous crack, no one had even listened to him, "He's after immortality?" Po asked the binturong as he closed up the scroll, "That's impossible, there's no way to be immortal." Tigress put in as she took the scroll from him to read it herself, "Not impossible, but deffinately improbable, do you remember how I said my father looked when he was found?" Enlai reminded them about his fathers appearance in death with a look on his face more serious than that which Tigress herself gave most of the time, "Ancestors help us if he finds that thing." Fei Yen said catching everyones attention as she put a paw on Enlai's shoulder. "Fei Yen, with all my heart, I'm sorry I accused you, but now the evidence is irrefudable that you are innocent." Enlai kneeled down before her starring down at the floor, the tigress was unsure of what to say, being treated as a person for the first time in her life rather than a thief, "If you could ever find it in your soul to forgive me, I'll forever be thankful, you are free to leave." she smiled at him as she put her paws on her hips, the masters expected her to bolt for the door after being given her freedom, but were surprized to see she bent down and grabbed the binturongs paw and pulled him up to face her, "I'm not going anywhere, this man set me up and I want a piece of him just as much as you do, and you are forgiven, though I don't really blame you for suspecting me." he smiled at her knowing by looking into her empathetic eyes she was serious, he bowed at her in acceptence that she was now a team mate on his quest for redemption, she pushed his paws appart and wrapped her arms around him in a friendly embrace, he grunted a bit from her arms squeezing him, Viiper couldn't help herself but to say out loud a teasing but loving"Awww." as they gently pushed away from each other, Enlai looking a bit flustered by it as Fei Yen giggled.

Meanwhile, as Meng Li made his way through the forest in his chair, he sat patiently awaiting something, he was finally answered by his carriage dropping from under him a few feet, he slammed into the chair and shot up opening the courtains with one claw, his servents dissapearing in clouds of smoke as he stepped down to face someone in front of him, "You could be a bit gentler you know!" he screamed at the man shrouded in the shadows of the surrounding trees, all that was heard was a menacing laugh before a white paw came towards the lynx, "Do you have it?" the voice asked as it stepped forward revealing a white fox with glowing red eyes, "Yeah yeah, here." Meng Li said as he threw the scroll he had shown Enlai earlier at the fox, "By the way Cheng, thanks for transfering Tao's chi into me, I feel better than ever." he said as the fox unraveled the scroll to look at it, "Only a small sample of what I'll be able to do when I get my hands on that sphere." he began to laugh again as he put the scroll back into its casing, "And then my friend, together we will rule the world." "Starting with China, by taking out the emperor!" they both began laughing wildly as Cheng snapped his claws together summoning shadow like animals to carry the carriage in which Meng Li traveled.


	13. A strange punishment

As the group began to tire, Mr. Dao showed them seperate rooms they could use, unfortunately there were only four rooms to chose from for nine different travelers, Enlai thought about the bedding situation for a bit until he came up with a solution, "Okay, looks like at least two can fit in each room, Tigress and Fei Yen, take this one." he told them as he pointed to the room nearest to the house exit, "Viper and Mei Ling, Crane and Mantis." he continued to give asigned rooms and room mates, "Finally, Po, you and Monkey." "What about you?" Tigress asked him as he made his way to the center of the room to lower himself into a sitting posission on the family seal engraved in the floor, "I'll sleep out here, I need to meditate first though." he answered her, she nodded knowing he must have a lot on his mind.

While the others had gone to sleep, Viper and Mei Ling were softly talking in there assigned room, getting to know each other better having a mutual friend between them, Mei Ling held up a claw to stop Viper from continuing her story she was telling, slowly opening up the sliding door to their room to look out at Enlai who was still sitting in the center of the room, "What is it?" Viper asked as she tried to look as well, "Three... Two... One..." Mei Ling whispered as she kept her eye fixed on the binturong, not one second after her countdown he got up and walked over to his equipment, being as careful as possible as to not wake anyone who was asleep, or alert those who weren't yet. He opened the door slowly and slipped through without a sound, "Knew it." Mei Ling said with a smirk, as she opened the door and bolted for the exit, "Wait, what is it?" Viper called out as the feline shot out the door, "Don't worry, I'll get him!" Mei Ling yelled back as Tigress opened up the door to her and Fei Yen's room, "What's going on?" she said angrily as she stepped through the opening, "Enlai left." Viper answered her still a bit confused as to why, Tigress' eyes went wide with both surprize and anger as she jerked her head toward the field laying outside the open door to the house, "Binturong!" her loud growling yell carrying out all the way to Enlai's ears as he nearly reached the fork in the road they had been traveling on earlier that evening, "Oh no." he whispered to himself as he turned to look behind him, seeing a figure in the distance racing after him, without hesitation he ran for the village.

As his paws hit the ground in quik bursts of thunder, his spear bounced on his back, tucked between his bow and quivel so he may run on all fours, he heard the same sound his paws made on the ground closing in behind him. He reached the edge of the village still sprinting to escape his persuer, A final beat of thunderous paws upon earth echoed its way into his ears from behind him, and then nothing but silence was heard other than his own paws. He stopped abrutly in confusion from the sudden lack of noise behind him, he turned his head to look back, and saw nothing, only a small cloud of dust from the ground was in sight before the village, "What the?-" "Gotcha!" a voice came from above him before the figure who had screamed it out landed on his back, causing them both to crash into the dirt, "Who?-" he started to ask until Mei Ling's eyes came into his sight, "You're a pretty fast guy." she laughed in delight, as though it were a game to her, a scowl drew itself across Enlai's face, her smile seeming to be in a teasing manner to him, "Get off!" he commanded her, "Oh?" she sighed in a questioning tone, "Or you'll do what hon?" she asked still with a teasing voice, Enlai's brows lowered to his eyes which were shining with a glare, though from the position they were in, his face was burried into the dirt, only the right eye was visable to the female feline as she stayed on his back, pinning him down, or so she had thought, "Or this!" he yelled as he wrapped his prehensile tail around her leg and pulled her off, she landed with a slight thud her right shoulder digging into the ground as she skidded along the road a bit.

Enlai got up on his feet as quik as possible for anyone to do, and started to run again, Mei Ling did the same, and grabbed his tail as soon as she was in range, he yelled out in both protest, and a bit of pain as she pulled on it, bringing him back to her, she put a paw on his back and forced him down on his stomache again, making sure his tail wouldn't be a problem, "Stop this now, you know you can't attack him like this, you need proof that he's guilty, else you'll be exicuted for treason!" "I don't care, I want his blood!" Mei Ling couldn't believe how quikly he could swing his mood from seeming calm and content in acceptance, to violent with bloodlust, "I won't let you persue certain death!" she tried to reason with him, "You would deny me my vengence?" "I would deny my new friend his demise!" she answered, as she pressed his arms down hard to his back to keep him downed, a tear streamed down her stone colored cheak and dropped to the ground next to Enlai's face, as he continued to struggle. At the sight of the teardrop exploding on the dirt he stopped, realizing she truely cared, he tried to look up to her but was unable to turn his head enough to see her face, "I lost Crane to his fame, unable to see him for years until now, he and I had just become friends when he was sent to the Jade Palace, I won't lose another one in the same way to something much worse!" He let his limbs go limp, and loosened his tail, "Mei Ling..." he whispered, she looked at him as he lowered his muzzle into the ground, "I'll wait... just... please stop crying, I can't stand for a woman to cry, it would have killed me watching Fei Yen if I hadn't thought she was guilty." "Promise you won't try and go after him again, at least until we have proof!" she commanded him as she pressed down on his arms again, to show she still had power over him, "Agh! I promise, stop pushing!" he yelled out in pain from the pressure on both his arms and his ribs being compressed by his limbs and the ground under him.

After returning to Mr. Dao's home, Tigress was keeping a sharp eye on the binturong, her gaze never letting up as she stared him down as Mei Ling tried to solve the ovbious problem of the new sleeping arrangements until Tigress spoke, "You, in there with her, I will sleep out here to make sure you don't try anything else." she pointed at the room in which she and Fei Yen had originally been given by Enlai, "But-" "No buts, I will not tollerate your constant deffiance any longer, you do it again, I WILL put you down." he nodded in humility and went into the room with Fei Yen in it, "Um, Miss Tigress, I must protest-" "You do and I'll make you stay in the same room as Mantis, he snors louder than a pig." she told her as she lowered herself onto the family seal on the floor, Fei Yen gave a bit of a disgusted look and retreated back into the room with Enlai as Mei Ling went back to hers and Viper's room.

Enlai lay awake, a bit uncomfortable sharing a room with Fei Yen who was laying only a few feet away from him, though she felt the same as he did about the decision that was made for them, They lay in complete silence, neither of them wanting to speak to the other at the moment for the awkwardness of things. Enlai tried to keep his eyes from bringing her into view, his morals telling him it was wrong to watch a female sleep, even though she herself was still wide awake, "So..." Fei Yen broke the silence finally, pausing as she was unsure how to continue, a thought finally popped into her mind about the one who had blamed her for the crimes, "Did Meng Li practice sorcery?" "No." Enlai answered as soon as she ended her question, "So how was he able to look younger than you remember?" "I don't know." he answered quikly again, Fei Yen grew a bit agitated at his bursted answers as she readied herself for another one of them, "So how could he do it without the sphere?" "I don't know-" "Why do you keep doing that?" "What?" he continued to answer her in quik bursts, his eyes staying away from her, she choked out a sigh in annoyance, "Good night." he said quikly as he turned completely away from her, "Nuh uh, you will not turn from me, you owe me this." she told him trying to make him see it as a further apology, Enlai exhailed a long and low sigh, his breath skipping a bit with his gravaly voice, "Fine..." he complied, Fei Yen's ears perked up a little, unsure if he was teasing, or if she had broken through his stubborness, "I don't know how he was able to do it, but what I do know is he needs to be stopped before he does it again." Fei Yen lowered her eyes knowing he was still torn about what had happened to his father. Enlai placed his right arm under his head, and covered his face with his large left paw, as Fei Yen let herself back down, and lay flat on her back, she then began to think of the recent events which had unfolded, thinking about her multiple captures, and how she was filled with sorrow and fear when Enlai had her again, this fuzzy black warrior who chased her for weeks to redeem his fathers death, only to find it was someone whom he had seen as a peer who commited the crime. She took the charm made from Enlai's masters missing scale and began to spin it around in her claws, transfixed by the constant clockwise twirl she was making it do. As she stared at it, a gruesome memory visited her mind, Cheng, her guardian of sorts who punished her on a regular bassis, had completely snapped when she read some of the scrolls he had hidden around his cold dark home, one of which she remembered a spell inscribed on it, but before she could think of what it was, her thought was replaced with the torture he had put her through when he found her reading them.

Fei Yen's eyes filled with tears as she recollected her past, she let the charm fall onto her chest and raised her paw to her face to wipe the tears, she began letting out small whimpers as she continued to cry. Enlai took notice of the sounds she was letting out and turned his head a bit to speak to her, "Hey... you alright?" he asked her with true concern in his voice, his empathy for the female gender telling him to see if she needed comfort. "Ye- yeah, I'm fine." she sat up so the tears wouldn't cloud her vision too badly, Enlai turned and sat up looking in her direction, "You sure?" Fei Yen pushed a smile through her sadness as she looked over to him to show she was alright with a nod. When she opened her eyes to look at him she was greeted by a wide eyed stare, "What is it?" she asked him, he began fumbling around his bag which Tigress had taken from him, and placed in the room when he and Mei Ling had returned and set in the room, "Warrior?" "You're bleeding." "What?" "You're bleeding, hold still." he told her as he pulled a cloth out and brought it to her face, she jumped a bit as he reached for her nose, "Wha-?" "Nah, be still." he commanded as he started wiping her face, "How did you start bleeding like this?" she sighed and closed her eyes, "It usually happens when I try to remember..." Enlai brought the now bloodied cloth away from her face and set it aside, "Remember what?" "A memory Cheng blocked out with one of his spells." Enlai's eyes went wide again, "He can do that?" she nodded and let out a slight laugh at the fact she tried to remember again, despite the fact she was never able to see the entire memory before her mind went to torture, "Is that why you were crying, does it hurt?" "No, I was crying because of what he did to me." "What did he do-?" "I don't hear sleeping in there you two!" Tigress shouted as her silhouette appeared on the paper sliding door.

Fei Yen tapped him on the shoulder and leaned in close to make less noise so the angry Tigress wouldn't hear, "He..." she paused with a whimper, the pain coming back to her, Enlai grabbed her paw with his own to show he would understand if she decided to change her mind about telling him, "It's okay, you don't have to if you don't want." "No no..." she shook her head trying to forget the pain, "He... used a spell to... torture my body, and mind... it felt as though my bones all broke at once, and my skull were being crushed..." Enlai stayed still in shock his own eyes never blinking before they began to shed tears of sympathy, as Fei Yen started to do the same from the recollection of the imense pain, "That... that..." Enlai tried his best to think of something to call the wicked man who had raised Fei Yen, but could come up with nothing, he mearly dismissed it with an agitated grunt, "It's alright, it's why I ran away." Enlai gave a slight smile, "Well..." he started off patting her paw, "Good to see you're alright now... We uh, should get some sleep." he said looking a bit emberrased about his sudden care for the one he just a few hours ago saw as his arch nemisis, Fei Yen smiled at his shy concern and nodded, "Good night then... " "Night, Fei Yen, and sorry again for the accusations." they both lay down on their seperate beddings, Enlai facing the wall, and Fei Yen facing towards him, "It's alright, hopefully we can start fresh tomorrow, maybe even become friends." "Heh." he let out a small laugh, "Maybe." he said lightly as he closed his eyes, Fei Yen smiled and closed her own, fading into her dreams.

*Hello, Azkeada here, sorry I haven't been uploading as of late, I've been dealing with the extreme pains of Whiplash, so please, be patient while I struggle to to bring you all the continuation of my KFP story, ugh, the headaches are getting to me. Sorry again, and thank you for your understanding.*


	14. Cheng's Behemoth

As Enlai slept, his mind went back to that horrid night, the large alarm bells ringing in the pagodas located at each corner of the temple, guards screaming out orders to find the intruder, franticly searching, until finally a scream of agony was heard coming from the library, Enlai rushed to the source to see what had happened, knowing his father was on guard there that night. Upon ariving in the library, a crowd was seen near the crest in the middle of the floor, Enlai tried to push through to see but was stopped by Meng Li who greated him with a sorrowful look.

Enlai's uper body burst into motion as he sat up panting, tears began to form in his eyes from the images in his dreams, he rubbed them away before they could continue, and remembered who was responsable for what had happened. He looked over to Fei Yen who was still fast asleep, her tail twitching ever few seconds as a cats usually does when it sleeps, her face seemed happy and content, a pleasent dream running through her head, Enlai's mild rage toward Meng Li was replaced by envy for Fei Yen's current state of happiness. Fei Yen grunted a bit and shifted her arms and legs pulling them inward before they shook a bit from the cool air in the room, Enlai pushed himself over to his bag as quietly as he could, and went rummaging through it, until he pulled out a folded cloth packed together tight, he unfolded it to where it was large enough to cover a normal sized person. Fei Yen shivered again as Enlai stood up and hovered over her, placing the cloth over her to keep her warm, he slowly let himself back down on his bedding, Fei Yen's eyes began to open slowly as he did so, she noticed that she felt a bit more comfortable and realized the cloth covering her, "Why did?-" "You looked cold." Enlai replied before she could finish, she smiled warmly at him, "What about you?" she asked concerned for his own risk in the cold air, as they were in the same chilled room, "My fur is thick enough to keep me warm, I'm fine." he answered without looking at her, he rolled over to face away from the grey tigress causing her to frown a bit, knowing there was still tension between them for the whole incedent.

Outside of Mr. Dao's home, Cheng and Meng Li were standing in the light of a crescent moon overhead, staring at the small yet cozy house, "Are you certain this 'Enlai' will be a problem, he sounds like a sad excuse for a warrior to me if he's this torn about his father." Cheng asked the lynx, unsure as to whether he should even bother with what he had planned for him, "Best to get rid of a possible problem before it turns out to be one, not only that, the Furious Five and the Dragon Warrior are in there with him." Cheng's eyes went a little wide upon hearing this, but his look of surprize was replaced with a smile full of malace, his sharp teeth shining in the light, his eyes began to glow red. "Well then, I can take them all out in one go now!" he held his paws out in front of him, a black mist began to enshroud the tips of his claws, working its way up to his wrists, "Rise my pet, rise up to serve your eternal master!" the ground began to push up in an arch, the sand pouring off of itself as the mound grew larger and larger. A blackened point stabbed through the earth, followed by another, and soon more began to spawn from the huge mound making two rows of five, growing shorter as they came out, Meng Li was awe stricken with the sight, watching this, whatever it was Cheng was creating, rise from bare ground.

The beast had finally risen completely, a black furred monster with claws longer that spears, and black shiny teeth packed together with nothing covering them, no muzzle or lips to keep them from being exposed, six yellow piercing eyes lined foward with a pair of red horns above each set, and a long scoirpion like tail at its end with a red glow at the tip of the stinger, "Go now, destroy the people inside that building, Serve your master my Behemoth!" Cheng screamed aloud to the mamoth sized beast, it answered with a roar that would level forests if too close, and charged at the small house.

Tigress had heard the roar and sprinted to the door, only to be greated by a sight most terrifying, the others ran out after her, and stopped dead in their tracks at what was now hurteling towards them, "What is that thing?" "We can't let it hit the house!" Po yelled out after Mantis had barely finished himself, Enlai ran back inside to his and Fei Yen's room and grabbed his bag, along with his weapons as he went back outside, he took a disk out of his bag and threw it as hard as he could at the demon, it flew through the air with a whizzing sound and connected with its intended target, and sliced through two of the creatures right eyes causing it to vear off in direction. It colapsed to the ground with a loud shreak of agony, it's tail flailing wildly slamming into the dirt, "Nice throw-" "Enough chit chat, put the thing down!" Fei Yen interupted Monkey as she Mei Ling and Tigress began to run towards it, "Agreed!" Enlai called out as he pointed his Ji in front of him in a charge, ready to stab into the monstrosity, followed by the rest of the masters.

Cheng and Meng Li stood off out of sight from the warriors to spectate their immenent failures to destroy the creature, "You're sure that thing will kill them off?" Meng Li asked the white fox who could barely contain his excitement to watch his creation feast on its ordered victims, "Behemoth has never been defeated, since the day I summoned him, he has fought countless battles, and never has he fallen, not permenately anyways." "Not permanately?" Cheng nodded at the lynx with enjoyment, "Even if he falls, I can simply extract his essence from a safe distance, and recreate him in an instant!" at the thought of the powers Cheng had over death itself, Meng Li drew a smile across his face, feeling he had made a great decision siding with the sorcerer fox.

"Watch the tail!" Crane warned the others as they all tried to get in a hit on the beast which had risen back to its feet and started attacking with everything it had, "Po, catch!" Enlai called out to him as he unsheathed his sword, and threw it to the panda, feeling as though kicks and punches would have little affect on the monster, The beast lunged its head at Mei Ling and snapped its jaws trying to eat her, she jumped back to avoid it by mear inches, and pounced on top of its head between the horns and started jabbing it in the eyes with her staff, "What's wrong, something in your eyes?" she taunted it laughingly as black mist began to pour out of its destroyed sockets. Po was slashing away at the things back right leg, until he noticed the point of the tail flying towards him, he backed up just in time for the point to stab into the ground near him before he swung at the mid section of it and cut clean through, the beast let out a deafening scream as its tail fell to the ground and disappeared in a boil of black smoke, as mist took place where the wound was. Enlai stood off to the side a bit messing around with something in his bag, "Guys, get it down on the ground, and open its mouth!" "Are you crazy? We want to stay AWAY from its mouth!" Fei Yen called back to him, giving him a look as though he were completely idiotic, "Just do it!" he answered as he threw his spear to Tigress who began using it to try and cripple the thing by stabbing it in the hind quarters. It finally fell with the injuries it had recieved all over its black body, and slammed into the earth shaking everything around it, "Hurry open its jaws!" Enlai commanded as he ran towards its head with something in both hands, Po and Tigress dropped the weapons and grabbed onto its teeth to pull them apart, after a bit of strain they forced a gap between its jaws a good five inches in length. Enlai took a small rod in his paw and put it to a wick sticking out of a cylinder in the other and threw it onto the beasts slightly exposed tongue, "Back off!" he yelled at everyone as he did the same, they all watched as nothing happened, the thing began to rise up again, recovering from its attack until the its head exploded in a destructive red and black cloud of fire, leaving its body to fall to the ground in a mass of black and crimson mist from its death as it festered into the ground slowly.

"Ancesters! what was that thing Enlai?" Mei Ling asked him, being the only one to be able to draw her attention from the fact they were now safe from harm, "A little thing my father tought me to make, a black powder and red phosphorous bomb." "That was AWESOME!" Po yelled out as loud as he could, "Wait, what's that?" Tigress pointed to a red transparent orb rising from the bubbling mess, Enlai's eyes went wide in realization, "No!" he grunted reaching into his bag and pulling out a gold object, he threw it at the orb making a direct hit, it froze in mid air giving him the chance to jump up to it and pull the object down along with the red light, "What is that thing?" Mei Ling asked as she starred at it, transfixed by its aluring glow, "A demon soul, my friend tought me about them, he gave me this talisman to dispell them if I ever encountered one... never thought I actually would, always thought he was crazy for it." "Guess he showed you, huh?" Mantis laughed at his own joke again while everyone else ignored him. Enlai drew a symbol in the dirt with one of his claws and stabbed the talisman into the middle of it with the soul still attatched, "Back to the underworld with you, demon!" the see through orb containing the soul cracked with a bright light and shattered into pieces, the symbol in the ground bursting into blue flames before disappearing, "There is no sanctuary for you." he said as he pulled the talisman up and placed it into his bag.

"He obliterated it." Meng Li said in disbeliefe, Cheng's eyes were glowing a bright red with anger, "My Behemoth..." the fox grabbed Meng Li by the throat and began to choke him, redirecting his rage, "HE DESTROYED MY BEAUTIFUL BEHEMOTH!" "Cheng... please... I can't..." "You said he'd be 'no problem' yet there he is, still alive after fighting my Behemoth, which by the way took me YEARS to find the right spells to summon so it would do my bidding, and you would DARE beg me to let you continue breathing?" Cheng threw the lynx against a tree they were hiding near, knocking what little air was left in his lungs out of him, "You had best be glad I need you to get the rest of the scrolls!" Meng Li began gasping for air, gripping at his chest in pain from his lungs refilling with oxygen as Cheng looked on at the group who had just annihilated his minion, "If I'm going to succeed in my efforts, I must make sure they are destroyed, no need for the old mans prophecy to come true." "But... then why did you hesitate killing them? you knew one was a black furred warrior." "Yes but from your discription he didn't seem threatening like his father, but now, I'm not so sure... I'm going to ponder on which of my pets to send next, Behemoth was only my first choice... You will find a way to get the scrolls faster than you have been, we still need the last two." Meng Li rose up from the trunk of the tree and bowed, "Yes master Cheng." the lynx then took off to find his carriage, as Cheng continued to look on at his new found enemies, "I'll see what I can conjure up back at my lair, count your lucky stars warrior, you won't have much longer to do so."

As they all walked back inside of the house to recover from their attack, Tigress sat down in the middle of the main room she had been sleeping in, she noticed Fei Yen being rather reluctant to look at anyone, avoiding eye contact when possible, "Fei Yen, what's wrong?" she asked her, Enlai stopped right behind the grey tigress to listen, as the others had paused a little ways from their rooms to do the same, "I..." she stopped and looked down at the floor, "Could I... just tell you tomorrow?" she questioned, seeming a bit worn from the fight, Tigress nodded and waved her away to tell her she would wait, Fei Yen bowed in appreciation and went back into her room with Enlai who closed the paper door behind him, "Enlai..." Fei Yen said catching him off guard, "That monster... I've seen it before, in the dreams Cheng forced into my head." she told him in a whisper, feeling she could trust him more than the others seeing as they had a common enemy in a way the others did not, Enlai sighed aloud, accepting in his mind that the man who had once attacked his home was still alive, "So that's how he did it." Fei Yen looked at him a bit confused, "Meng Li, he must have teamed up with Cheng, that's why he looked younger, that means they're near." "But, what about Tigress?" "I'm not going out there." he answered her, she jolted her head back a bit in surprize, "I'm going to do as Master Tigress says, in due time, their justice will be served by my hand, or Master Fong Hei's." he walked over to his bedding and practicly fell down without care, "Man I'm tired." Fei Yen laughed lightly at him, "Good night, Enlai." "Night." he replied as he rolled over with a sigh to return to slumber after their rude awakening.

***Okay, this may sound a bit weird, but I just thought I'd say it anyways, no problem with being who you are the way I see it, but if I could have one song play during the part where the Behemoth showed up, it would be ELO(Electric Light Orchestra)'s "Fire on High", look it up, it's a pretty cool instrumental***


	15. I spy

The next morning, the entire group had slipped out of Mr. Dao's home without alerting neither he nor his grandaughter of their departure, "Okay, does everybody have their own possesions? Enlai?" "Yup, got everything of mine." he answered Tigress with a slightly confused look, "What's wrong?" she asked him as Fei Yen exited the house and closed the door quietly behind her, "Why exactly are we sneeking away from them? They pose no real threat." Tigress crossed her arms and shot him her ever constant glare of endless seriousness. "You said your master didn't want anyone to know about the mission, well, Fei Yen got busy with something she suggested to me as you all still slept." Enlai's look of confusion grew a deeper effect to the emotion, "Wha- what did you have her do?" "Nothing serious, she thought it would help smooth things over between you two." "What does that mean?" he asked a bit loudly causing Tigress to place a claw against her lips and shoosh him. "She wasn't being completely truthful when she said she didn't practice magic." Tigress paused to look over at the others whom had begun to speak with Fei Yen about something, Po emitting his usual sounds of what he reffered to as awesomeness, "She put the Dao's under a spell that would make them forget we ever stayed with them, she said she read multiple scrolls that Cheng kept near, and learned how to fend for herself with them." Enlai looked over at the maltese tigress, and only sighed out a small "Huh" in surprize, he began to stare at her as she watched in amusement at Po who was reinacting the battle that had occured the night before with excitement. "She told me that she did it to help you." Enlai was brought back to the conversation by the comment, "You know Binturong, I think she likes you." "What? No no no, I- she coulnd't possibly like someone like me, I arrested her!" Tigress began to laugh slightly until the humor of the moment got to her and caused her to laugh to a point where the others could hear her. They all looked over at her unsure of what was going on, she stopped abruptly and caughed to cover up what had happened, "Lets get going, shall we?" she then walked off leaving Enlai to the fast aproaching Po who had the usual look of excitement on his face, "Woah, you got Tigress to laugh, that's awesome!" "I've never seen her like that, what did you say to her?" Crane asked as he and the others came up to join in the amazement that Po was showing, "I- uh I... " "Let's go people!" Tigress called out as she walked towards the hills, Enlai saw the oppritunity to escape from the group and took it, "Well you heard the lady best be going on!" he said as he ran to catch up with her, leaving the others behind a bit confused.

Enlai walked up front with Tigress, not wanting to be near Fei Yen in the event that Tigress was right about her liking him, being unsure as to how to react to such a thing, "So..." he tried to start a conversation with her, she awaited continuation to know whether she would indulge or reject, "Uh..." "Try thinking of a question before you ask one, it makes you seem less clueless." Enlai took a bit of offence to her words, but simply shook it off with a chuckle, "Sorry, I'm still recovering from your earlier comment." she nodded in acceptance that he wasn't used to such things like that. "I wasn't kidding when I said that you know." "No, I know... You? Kidding? it's... well, kinda laughable, no offence." "None taken." she replied to him, never changing her expression, "Well, how would you react to something like that, if someone liked you in that way, what would you do?" "Wait for them to tell me so, and then decide if they are worthy enough or not." Tigress glanced over as she told him, he gave her an unamused glare telling her that her input didn't help any, "Thanks, you'd make a great psychiatrist." the sarcasm rolled out of his mouth with a low grunt. Tigress sighed and gritted her teeth a bit, "Fine, just... talk to her a bit, you can never build a bridge without starting." Enlai paused the conversation for a few seconds to look back at Fei Yen who was talking feverishly with Mei Ling and Crane, he looked back to his front then back at Tigress, "...I'm scared..." "Ancestors help me."

After much persuasion, Enlai was finally talked into speaking to the young maltese tigress, he took a deep breath and slowed down so she may catch up with him unaware of his intentions, she noticed he was losing pace and placed a paw on his back to push him forward, "I think your feet stopped working for a bit there." she told him jokingly with a smile, "Huh? oh! uh, yeah, I... was just letting them rest a bit!" he stuttered nervously at her, she laughed at him and continued to push on his back, "Well, I'll just help you keep up then." Enlai looked away from her, embarresed about the situation he had put himself in. "Hey Enlai." he looked at her with only his left eye, keeping his face forward, "I uh, just wanted to thank you for consoling me last night when I was feeling so troubled, it really helped." "Oh, no problem, it was how I was raised, never leave a soul in need to writhe in pain." Fei Yen smiled at him, and went to say something else, until Po interupted with a complaint of hunger. "Ugh... food... need... food!" Enlai was destracted from her by the whining and decided to try and take care of the problem, "Po, we're not too far from the temple, just play a game or something in the meantime." "No, Binturong, don't get him start-" "Okay! I spy with my little eye-" "What ever diety is up there, please strike me down now." Tigress said in extreme annoyance as Po searched around for something for them to guess at. "...Something... Green!" "Me!" Viper and Mantis said in unisen with smiles going across their faces, "No." "How about Mei Ling's outfit, it's all green." Fei Yen decided to join in, laughing at her guess, "Oh, you're a comedian, aren't you?" she replied laughing along with her, "Funny, but not the answer." "The grass." "Too obvious Tigress!" he retorted, as the others chuckled a bit, "Okay, it's my shirt." "BINGO!" Po answered Enlai throwing his arms up into the air for emphasis.

"Okay, I spy with my little eye..." Enlai started off to humor the panda, "... Something... purple..." the group began to look around for something of the color, finding nothing in plain sight, "Uh, Enlai, I don't see anything purple." "Yeah, are you sure you're not color blind or something?" Enlai laughed at their attempts to find something, "you guys give?" they all nodded awaiting to hear the answer, "Fei Yen's eyes" he pointed at her face causing her to blink a bit in surprize, they all looked save for Tigress who was trying not to get into what she saw as imature childsplay, "What?" Mantis exclaimed in anger that it was the only thing around of the color, and he had never even looked at her really, "How long have you been staring into her eyes Enlai?" Mei Ling picked at him jokingly with a wink, "What? No! I just noticed them and found it rather unique, I mean, how often do you see someone with purple eyes? It's cool, and they're my second favorite color." he said defencively, trying to have a convencing look on his face, "Sure you did, admit it, you like Fei Yen." "Wha?- Not in the sence you're speaking of!" he continued to argue with Mei Ling who was enjoying the embarresed face he wore. "Guys, come on!" Tigress yelled at them getting fed up with their squable, "Okay... it's still your turn, Lover Boy." "Eheheh, that's cute." he replied to her comment, tilting his head back and forth with each fake laugh to emphasise his false ammusement, Mei Ling let out another giggle, "Fine, I spy with my little eye... something... shiney...?" "Your spear." Monkey said, breaking his silence, finally deciding to join in on what fun was to be had for the moment, "No seriously, I see something shiney over there!" they all looked back to se where he was pointing and saw an object letting itself be known through a glimmer of light not far from the road they were on, Crane flew over to it and recognized it immediately, "It's that disk thing of Enlai's!" he swooped down and grabbed it to bring it back to him, Enlai took it from him with a greatful smile and placed it back into his bag, "Wow, that thing got some serious distance." Mantis said as Enlai closed the bag back up, Tigress began to grow impatient, crossing her arms to show, "Well, my father tought me well, anyway, let's get going." they all noddeed in agreement, knowing that he had made Tigress mad before and didn't want to do it again if possible, "Are we quite finished?" she asked in agitation, "uh, yeah, sorry." the binturong answered her running to catch up.

The group stayed broken off in small groups of three and four other than Enlai and Tigress who were up front staying completely silent while leading. Enlai looked back and saw Po, Monkey and Mantis goofing around as they usually did in their own group, just behind them was Crane, Mei Ling, Viper and Fei Yen who were steadily conversing about something as Fei Yen just listened to them, enjoying the company. Tigress noticed him looking back at them and began to grow a bit curious, she looked back for herself and saw that Fei Yen wasn't speaking to anyone at all, no one was even dignifying that she was there really, between the males shinanigans, and the others catching up with each other, "Binturong, why don't you go speak with her, it's not like you're doing anything important up here with me." Enlai whipped his head back around to face her with a somewhat clueless face, "Huh, no, I don't want to bother her, she's been through quite a bit already, most of it being my fault, I think I'm the last person she would want to talk to, plus I've already rejoined you up here so..." Tigress shot him a glare that told him she didn't care what he said, and that he would go back there, "Binturong, Master Shifu left me in charge, and I order you to go speak with her." he looked at her as if about to ask if she was truely going to that level to get him to do as she told him, but was only greated by a glare that gave him the answer, "... Fine..." he accepted her suggestion and slowed down so Fei Yen would catch up.

As she caught up with him she greated him with a smile, "Hey, what's up?" Enlai gave a slight smirk at the question and began walking at the same pace as the grey feline, "Tigress wanted me to see how you were holding up." "Ah, so nice to know she cares." she replied sarcasticly, knowing that from what she had seen of the master that she wasn't really the friendly or caring type, "Yeah, I told her that I'm the last person you'd want to talk to, but-" "Why's that?" the question caught him off guard a bit, he stuttered to get out an answer. "W-well, I'm the one that arrested you, chained you, and constantly accused you to be guilty." she smiled at him, making him even more confused as to what was going through her head, why she wasn't angry with him, or why she was even talking to him after what he did to her. "Well... I'm not guilty of THOSE crimes, and yes you imprisoned me, and abused me emotionally for what time I was at your mercy-" "I-I'm sorry, but-" "Let me finish... but you also set me free, and apologized for everything, ready to accept any hate I had for you in any form, I saw your true colors, and knew you would make a decent friend." Enlai was a bit stunned at what she said, to want to befriend someone who had once seen her as their worst enemy all because he showed sympathy after finding truth.

"Hey guys, look at the pagodas over there, they're huge!" Po pointed to a group of towers just on the horizon, Enlai began to smile a bit and let out a warm sigh, "That... is the Emerald Temple." Po's eyes went wide at the sight, eager to see the place where Enlai had grown up, "Woohoo, let's go!" he screamed as he ran off in the direction of the temple, following the road, ""Po- guess we'd better catch up to him huh?" "He'll tire himself out in a bit, we can walk." Monkey answered Mei Ling who let out a small laugh, "Binturong, if you would lead the way." Tigress waved her paw in front of him, wanting the local to show her the way to his home, Enlai smiled and bowed in gratitude before leading them on to the temple.

Back at Cheng's lair, Meng Li had arrived with one of the final scrolls and was looking around for the white fox, "Master?" he called out, holding the scroll close in fear that someone might try and take it, "You're late you fool!" a loud and deep voice yelled from nowhere and echoed throughout the cave, Meng Li jumped in fright from the sudden burst of noise, he looked around but saw nothing but shadow in the unlit cavern, "I-I'm sorry master, this one was rather hard to obtain." he answered back to the bodyless voice. A pair of red eyes lit up behind the lynx and a dark paw grabbed him and spun him around to face the crimson glare, he let out a small scream from the touch and sight, "I don't want excuses, I want loyalty paired with results." he growled as his body mass came out of the cave wall, "A-and I am the most loyal your greatness, I'd do anything for you my master!" Meng Li replied as he bowed and held out the scroll casing, "Good, because I need you to return to the Emerald Temple, we've been duped apperently." "What?" "I sent in one of my minions desguised as one of the guards there before we took the fifth scroll to scope out the place, I had completely forgotten about it until I tuned into what it as seing, and it found a second scroll at the temple, the very last one we need, that scaled rat Fong Hei was hiding it all along." "B-but master, I've been all over that temple before, I can assure you there was only one-" "You would deny what I have seen with my own eyes you foul feline?" he raised his dark voice at his humble servent who bowed his head even lower. Cheng snapped his claws and summoned four shadow wolves who then transformed into normal looking beings, "They will escort you." "Yes master... might I ask a question?" Cheng grunted in annoyance from Meng Li's persistant questioning, "What happened to my men? the raccoon dogs who worked for me?" "They were loose ends, I told you that we should have used my minions, but they tried to sell out right after they were paid." Meng Li scoffed at Cheng's words, "Those ungreatful little-" "Yes yes, don't bother looking for them, they're no longer in our deminsion, I saw to that." "... I see..." "Yes now see this, if you don't leave now, I shall let you visit them perminantly, now get me that scroll!" Meng Li bowed once more and ran out of the cave with the wolves, "Now we truely do have a problem... don't we my pet?" Cheng asked stroking the fur on his chin, a low growl emited from behind him as a pair of glowing white eyes opened behind him, "Nothing you can't handle though Imugi... nothing you can't handle."


End file.
